Archangel's last stand, in a prologue and four chapters (probably). Includes poetry excerpts from "Invictus," by William Ernest Henley. All characters belong to Bioware, although I did take the liberty of fleshing out Archangel's fallen teammates.
Prologue: Ri'Hesh Shurta
A tone in his ear tells the Turian in the blue face paint and the customized Kuwashii visor that Weaver and Sensat have eyes on the target. He rolls gracefully to his feet, reaching a three-taloned hand out to grasp the the forestock of the customized M-98 Mantis leaning against the low railing next to him. He strolls two steps back from the rail, turns casually, and raises the weapon's scope to his right eye. Past the railing, seven hundred yards away down a dirty station corridor, the first groundcar in the convoy comes into view around the corner, low and sleek and shining. He tracks the scope left and sees an asari in a flat black form-fitting suit with an assault rifle resting casually across her chest crouched next to a heavily armored turian wrapped around an enormous grenade launcher. They're both hunkered down behind a newspad vending machine, out of sight of the street. He shifts his stance smoothly, the rifle barrel rising, and through the scope he spots a pair of hulking krogan lurking in an alley up the street, bristling with weaponry. He tracks the view higher and back to the left and sees, through a second story window, a human looking back at him through binoculars. When the human sees him looking, he raises one hand and makes a "thumbs up" gesture. The visored turian returns it, then tracks the scope back down to settle on the third and last car as it closes up behind the large black hovervan in the center of the convoy. He breathes out, and brings the scope down until the crosshairs settle on a pedestrian walkstrip. He breathes. He waits.
As he watches, a turian female and a salarian male, apparently very inebriated, stagger into the walkway. The lead car has to break hard to stop in time. The driver's side window rolls down and an arm attached to a three-fingered turian hand appears out of the window and makes a one-digit gesture. The drunken salarian spins around, awkward and indignant, and returns the favor, almost falling over in the process. Now the arm is making impatient 'move out of the way' gestures. The turian female raises the plastic-wrapped bottle to take a sip, and that's when the rearmost car in the convoy blows up. The roof comes off like a flipped credit chit, and while it's still in the air Erash produces a pistol and shoots the gesticulating driver of the first car neatly in the head. Melanis drops her bottle, pulls a submachine gun from the harness on her back, and runs to the bumper before she empties the magazine into the passenger and rear seats. Off to the side, the armored turian, the asari, and the two krogan are jogging into position to cover all three vehicles. The pair of krogan trot over to the rear car and the larger of the two takes a peek into the interior of the burning vehicle for a moment before turning his attention to the rear doors of the van. The human driving the cargo vehicle seems to have realized the peril he's in, but even as he starts to spin the wheel over, the turian sniper's big Mantis rifle cracks and the windshield shatters. As he ejects the spent thermal sink, he sees the driver slowly slumping forward onto the controls. The passenger is frozen in place, looking up in the sniper's general direction. The turian takes just a moment to match the face to the holoimage of the target displayed in his visor before he renders it unrecognizable with a hypervelocity round through the forehead. He taps the comm unit in his ear and speaks.
"Grundan, Krull, check the cargo compartment. Carefully. There might still be a guard or two in there."
Mieran and Ripper are pushing out from the ambush site to hold the perimeter, assault rifle and grenade launcher at the ready. A pair of humans come jogging down the street to assist them. One is a redheaded male in alliance-issue medium armor carrying an assault rifle, the other is a tall, lanky woman in customized light armor with a pistol in each hand. The arm sections have been removed from her gear, leaving swirling tattoos visible on Monteague's bare arms. She and Weaver split up as they reach the ground cars, fanning out to support the asari commando and the Turian heavy weapons specialist. The two krogan approach the doors, and at a command from Krul, the Grundan reaches up one three-fingered hand and wrenches the door open, almost pulling it from its hinges. The turian sniper can't see the interior from his position, but he does see the two krogan look at one another before Krul gives a 'thumbs up' in turn. The turian smiles to himself, and keys the mike.
"Ok guys, good work. Clean up and place the goodies, and let's get out of here. Transport at Bravo in five minutes."
He watches in satisfaction as his team moves efficiently to loot the bodies and make sure of any wounded. While he's watching, the human he saw earlier in the window walks out the front door of the building with a large satchel held carefully in both hands. The rest of the team opens up a respectful hole around Butler as he carefully places the satchel in the back of the van and closes the door. As individuals they all scatter, disappearing into alleys and sidestreets, heading for the trio of aircars they've stashed at various points outside the kill zone. The turian lingers long enough to watch the red sand and the transport disappear together in an enormous orange fireball before he heads for his own vehicle. Garrus Vakarian has always enjoyed a good explosion.