Falling

Nakmor Salira should have been angry, but she wasn't.

She was scared shitless.

Contrary to popular belief, krogan did feel fear. Anything alive felt fear. But when you were bigger than most other known species, regenerated wounds that would kill almost any of them and encased in totally natural armor that rivaled some armored fighting vehicles from smaller races? Fear wasn't something that krogan normally dealt with. When they did? They usually got angry as soon as they felt it and then things tended to get messy. Even the non-warrior krogan were tough and well trained. When one had to fight for every moment just to survive into adulthood, one tended to get that way. Anger was something that every krogan knew on an intimate level. Right now though? Nakmor Salira was not angry. She didn't have time for anger.

The Kodiak shuttle bounced as she slid the tough little craft between two small hills, trying with all of her skill to avoid the mass of ground fire that came her way. She did, but the maneuvers were strong enough to temporarily overload the shuttle's inertial compensator. She heard retching behind her that she ignored as her copilot called out.

"Another!" The male turian said with a growl. "Port-side! Three klicks!"

"I see it." Salira slid the shuttle behind a hill and threw all power to the thrusters. She didn't have a lot of time.

Salira wasn't supposed to be piloting on this jaunt. This was supposed to be her downtime, something she did not have a lot of after the mess with her clan leaving. Kesh had stayed with the Nexus despite all of the mess and Salira had felt a need to stay with her clanmate. Many people had argued with her. Even that ancient curmudgeon Drack had gotten involved, but Salira had stood firm. Kesh needed her. Salira was one of the best shuttle pilots the Nexus had left. So many had died or simply not shown up here in Andromeda. Even that piece of garbage Tann with all of his holier than though attitude knew that resources were too scarce to limit what they used simply for ego.

The Nexus was in big trouble. Without the arks that still hadn't shown up, the station did not have the personnel or power to continue operation. It had never been part of the plan for the Nexus to have the resources to support itself. It was not a question of right and wrong, it was a question of space and mass. There was only a certain amount of space available to bring everything that was needed across the gulf of dark space to this new galaxy. The Nexus was supposed to be a support hub for the arks, not a solitary and self sufficient bastion. Without the personnel from the arks, without the resources that the arks were supposed to bring to the Nexus, the staff there were doomed. The colony on Eos was their only chance. The Nexus could barely support itself after all of the chaos of the rebellion. Feeding itself was out of the question. Even with rationing, Salira knew in her heart that the Nexus was doomed. Kesh was a stubborn female and Salira would not leave her clan sister to face Tann and the others alone, so she kept her head down and soldiered on despite so many slights and insults from so many…

"Get in!" Salira snapped across the short range com as she slammed the shuttle to the ground nearly on top of the two humans who stood there, postures amazed as enemy fire flew over and around them. They did not. She stared as both reached down and grabbed a still form, hauling the bleeding turian with them as they ran for salvation.

"Three?" Her copilot gulped as all three made it in ahead of a torrent of plasma bolts. Salira winced as the shuttle rocked under impacts of weapons that had no counterpart where she had been born, but then she threw the stubby little ship into motion again. She left the ground fire behind quickly but her scanner beeped. Incoming enemy craft.

"Everyone in the bay! Incoming fire! Hold tight to something or someone!" Salira snarled as two of the cross shaped ships got the range and started firing. "This is going to get rough!"

"What did we ever do to these… These kett things?" A female voice begged from behind.

"Does it matter?" A weak male voice answered her. "Just hold on to something, Juliet. Let the pilot do her job."

That had to be the wounded turian. No human could be so calm at such a time and that wasn't an asari. The only asari Salira had picked up was unconscious. Resilience hadn't had any salarians that Salira knew of. There were not a lot of them in Andromeda without their ark. She caught a glimpse of the smoke wreathed remnants of Resilience as she flew a bare meter off the ground, energy fire seeking her that she avoided through both skill and luck. The second attempted colony was a mess. She smiled grimly as two more of the large craft tried to cut off her path and her jinking threw them onto a collision course with her two initial pursuers. She barked a laugh as two of ugly green things collided. One flew up, trailing smoke. The other lost a good third of its lower fuselage and fell to earth, where it exploded. Big and tough they might be. Able to keep up with her, they were not.

"Serves you ambushing bastards right!" Salira crowed but then her copilot spoke again and threw ice water on her glee.

"Another beacon. Two people there." He said weakly. "Pilot..." The krogan pilot did not take her eyes from her screens but she knew he was looking at her. The attack force was overwhelming and they had a limited chance of escape now. If they tarried, they would more than likely be caught and killed. That left aside the matter of mass. The Andromeda Initiative had not shirked on expense for their Kodiak shuttles, but even the far-better-than-civilians-were-allowed design had limits to how much it could lift and how rapidly. The Initiative was not an army. They hadn't planned for such a fight.

"We are the last shuttle. If we leave them here, they die." Salira said with a sigh. A quick glance showed many enemy ships approaching. A quick look at the map and Salira had the shuttle on a looping course into the hills. "Give me an evasive pattern. I don't care what kind! Just give me a path to that beacon!"

The turian did not respond. He focused on his work. He was military to the core like most turians and he was good at what he did. He did not have Salira's innate pilot skill, but he knew what he was doing. When the call had come in to evacuate Eos, he had jumped into her shuttle. She had barely gotten his name and for the life of her? She couldn't remember it right now.

"Pilot?" The woman in back asked weakly. "No! What are you doing? I wanna go home!"

"So do they, Juliet!" The wounded turian said with a groan. "Let them do their job. She will get us home. That is Salira."

Salira felt odd. She was used to people calling her foul names. She was used to the fear and rage that krogan had always engendered in others. Especially after the rebellion had torn the Nexus apart. But this was different. He sounded almost in awe. She focused on flying as a path appeared on her Head's Up Display. She smiled grimly as she saw it took her into the middle of the badlands, twisting here and there through the rocky promontories. Once more, she blessed her final Andromeda Initiative flight instructor. Jak Collains had been an asshole on many occasions, but he had been a special ops pilot. He had known exactly how bad things could get. When the excrement had hit the rotary air impeller here? Only his training had kept Salira alive on many occasions. She regularly hoped and prayed that he and his two companions still lived on their ark, but right now? She was busy.

The kett had clearly done their homework and had just as clearly come prepared to take the colony. Unlike the Initiative, they were clearly a military force. Armed, equipped and trained to fight. What little Salira had seen about them had chilled her down to the bone. Her clan would fight of course. It was what krogan did. But even krogan knew numbers. They did not have the numbers to fight such an organized enemy here and now. Maybe someday. If the kett gave them time to settle and grow their numbers. That would be fairly stupid of the alien though and what little Salira had seen of them did not speak of stupidity. Arrogance? Maybe. Stupidity? No. The ground fire was still seeking them and the enemy would box them in sooner rather than later. She didn't have a lot of time.

The pilot kept the shuttle moving and barely a meter off the ground. Luckily, she had done cargo runs to Promise and Resilience several times. She knew the area. Most of it anyway. It was likely almost as much of a shock to the two hurt humans who were cowering by the beacon as to the kett when she slid between two rocky pillars and slammed into the ground at far too high a velocity less than ten meters form their position. Oh, the maintenance people would not be happy with her.

"Pilot!" The copilot said weakly as the human woman tried to rise and fell, a smoking hole appearing in her leg. The man didn't move from where he crouched, pouring fire at enemies that were not visible. Yet. "The kett!"

There was more fire coming in. The kett were closing in! They were not going to make it.

Oh, yes they were!

"Stay." Salira's snapped word had more than one person gasping as she undid her restraints and slid form the shuttle like a greased eel.

It always amazed people that a massive krogan could be so agile. She couldn't match a salarian for sheer speed, but she were no slouch. She ran from the shuttle even as the turian gasped something behind her. Her N7 Crusader rose in trained reflex as if on rails and barked even before her forebrain registered the target. It had cost her quite a bit to acquire the priceless shotgun, but it had surprised all kinds of people after she had managed to finagle it out of Initiative stores. The heavy slug surprised the hell out of the kett who had been trying to flank the two humans, throwing his steaming body back in a welter of putrid green gore.

"Get in!" Salira screamed as she slammed into cover, her shotgun barking again and again. Each shot killed an enemy. She was surprised, but grateful when three Avenger rifles opened up from the hatch, covering the two humans as the man rose, grabbed his companion and started for the hatch. They didn't hit much if anything at all with their spraying and praying, but the sheer weight of fire had to keep any kett cautious, even when they altered their fire to keep from hitting the two last refugees from Resilience. The man all but threw the woman in and slid in himself. Salira ran back as well, grunting as red hot pokers slammed into her armor. She was hurt, but she was krogan! She would not let them win! Then it happened. A well aimed or very badly aimed bolt of kett plasma hit her left knee. Any physical strength had limits and that passed hers. She went down in a heap and snarled as she rolled. She was hurt, but she was krogan. She came up with her shotgun in hand. She would regenerate fast, but until then? She was not going to make the shuttle and there were seven lives in there. Simple math.

"Go!" She screamed as she emptied the clip and reloaded. Four shots. Four dead kett.

"I am not leaving you!" The turian barked right back, fury mixing with fear.

"I can survive this! You can't!" That was simple truth. Eos was irradiated far beyond any normal level. Krogan could survive radiation that other races could not. Any of the others who came outside the shuttle would fry. Fast. The survivors would need medical care, but if they got away? They would survive. Salira slid away from the colony, down a sand dune. Away from the shuttle even as she fired again and again to try and keep her enemy's attention on her. "Get out of here. Pilot! That is an order!"

Technically, she wasn't supposed to be giving orders. She didn't have a rank. Not really. No one had ever bothered giving her any kind of recognition. Certainly no rank or authority. She had never actually been involved in the mutiny despite being thawed as soon as they had arrived and found out what a mess they had gotten into. Most of that was Kesh's doing. Salira had been busy as all hell flying stuff here and there. She had never had time to do anything more than sleep after her jaunts. The krogan had put down the rebellion and been given their usual lot afterwards. Ignored and abused as always. Some things never changed. Salira had been asked to go with the clan to Elaaden, but like that crazy old fool Drack, she had decided to stay with Kesh. Her reward? Worked to death and now? Probably dead. Tann at least would be happy with one less krogan headache. Kesh and many others would not be.

She did smile grimly as the shuttle clawed into the sky. It started down towards her, but she aimed her shotgun at it and it took off. Not a bluff. She would have fired. The kett were following and fire came occasionally, but after the first three rushed her and all fell within seconds of each other, the rest seemed a bit less inclined to suicide. She saw several kett ships pursuing the shuttle and heaved a sigh. She had done all she could. Now? She had to find away to survive. She was krogan. She would survive or she would take a heavy toll on anyone and everyone who tried to take her down. She had no illusions about her own mortality. They could bring her down eventually if she screwed up badly enough. But she also knew her skills and she would do her darnedest to survive. It was what krogan did! And if not? She would make it cost them.

One way was as good as another, so she started off deeper into the badlands. There would be no further shuttles. Tann likely wouldn't have risked the few he had if he hadn't been so strapped for personnel. Losing several of them to kett ground fire would hurt. Behind her, the kett were regrouping, but she had no illusions. She knew they had shuttles of their own. She couldn't outrun them on foot, but maybe…

She had heard about caves in the badlands. Maybe if she found one, she could shelter there. Her com system was purely short range, but Promise and Resilience had longer range gear, if she could get to them. They had also stockpiled ammunition. She glanced at her shotgun and winced. Three clips left. Twelve rounds. She did not need to pat her sidearm to know that the Predator was fully loaded. As weapons went, the pistol was fairly lackluster, but it was reliable and right now? That was what mattered. Kett died when you shot them. That also mattered. Maybe she could take some of their weapons? Use them? Maybe not. She would find out. She had time.

As she trudged deeper into the badlands, Nakmor Salira laughed a but maniacally. She had come to Andromeda hoping for a fresh start. This was bit more fresh and new than she had imagined, but as always, she was krogan. She hadn't surrendered to Tann's blatant prejudice. She wasn't about to surrender to some invisible radiation or some bony green blooded scum who shot first and didn't bother asking questions after. She had survived seeing her child perish. She would survive this.

And even if she didn't? She smiled grimly and took cover in some nearby rocks as a green bulbous shape eased overhead, clearly seeking her. She did nothing and the kett dropship moved on. She would pick her battles, pick her battlefields. Pick her targets and when she did? She would hit them as a krogan.

She would make it hurt.

Nearby

Nakmor Salira was very good at what she did and she was krogan. Big, tough, armored, all of that. Trained from birth by the harshest school imaginable. Survival.

That said, she was not omniscient.

She never saw the small robotic form that paced her just outside of her line of sight. Eventually, the Initiative would call the hovering tentacled things 'Observers' and there was a significant truth to that. They observed. It was what they did. Only when threatened or their decided territory was encroached did they resort to violence. But this one was different. Whereas most Remnant observers were green, this one glowed slightly blue-white. Not enough to draw attention, just enough to be very different.

When she finally made it into a cave and slumped in relief as she got out of the direct path of the sun, she never heard or saw the small blue-white thing ease up behind her. She had a moment to see a red glow, but no time to do anything more as its eye opened. She never felt the pulse of EM radiation that passed through her bony carapace as if it didn't exist at all and turned off most of her cognitive function like an 'off' switch. She never felt the floor of the cave, because she never hit it. Instead, her unconscious bulk was caught in a blue field and carried from the cave, far away from the prying eyes of the kett.

Part of her likely would have prayed that the beam had been a laser that killed her instantly.

Those who took her were not that nice.