Sobrevivientes, a mass effect fanfic

Posted as part of the 2014 Mass Effect Flash Big Bang

Author: War Lioness

Artist: Minque

A million thanks to my artist: Minque, who makes beautiful pictures and my beta janiemcpants, without whom this story would be one hot mess.

Nights were the worst.

Days were for the work of survival: fighting, foraging and finding shelter required all of Justus' concentration and energy. When the sun was baking the ground beneath his feet into a hard clay pan that stank of blood and fear, and the chatter of gunfire rattled his eardrums as the husks moaned and scratched at his heels, it was easy to live in the moment. Forget tomorrow and yesterday and just focus on fitting the next sink into the port.

Justus rolled onto his back and stared at the ancient, rough-hewn rock of the ceiling. His mandibles twitched and ground involuntarily in his agitation. He felt, more than heard, the rolling reverberations of the Reaper claxon through the cave walls.

No, nights were definitely worse.

At night he could remember. Remember the look of determination on Professor Tyber's face as the elderly turian stopped, turned and drew his ancient Star Screamer pistol. He'd held a choke point against a horde of husks long enough to allow his students to escape deeper into the ruined city. Remembered the marauder they'd gunned down, weeks later, on the scorching plain between the forest and the ruins that had run more lightly on the distinctive quarian-designed prosthetic leg than Tyber ever had.

Remember all the nights their little band had cowered here in the Bricklayer's stone fortress, each night fewer of them then there had been that morning. Remember how each of the lost had died. Whether they died with a roar as they charged into the seething mass of moaning, writhing dead pale flesh and cybernetics, or with a whimper, succumbing to infection, sickness, or injury, he remembered. Screams and whispers mingled in his ears and rose to deafen him whenever he tried to sleep.

Justus had lost count of how many days and weeks had passed since Cipritine had fallen beneath a tide of hideous, twisted Reaper monsters. But he hadn't lost count of the dead. One hundred and thirty-nine of the hundred and fifty students and teachers who had left on the field trip to the Bricklayer's Courtyard ruins that day. He remembered each name, each face.

Now they were only twelve. No, Justus corrected himself. Eleven. We had to put Bruce down yesterday when he woke with those tell-tale glowing eyes. The young turian ground his mandibles harder, fighting down the keen clawing its way up his throat with needle talons. Losing the gentle grad student to indoctrination had shaken the remaining survivors to the core.

Justus grunted and rolled out of his blanket. If he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight, he may as well do something useful. He followed the harsh scent of a chem stove down the hall to where Crius had managed to scrounge enough instant kastneh to make a large pot. Justus poured a mug of the thick, bitter brew and sipped gingerly, wrinkling his nose at the taste.

"That stuff'll stunt your growth, Jus."

"Oh? So that's why you're shorter than an Invictus cargo shipment! Livia wins the pool."

The stocky turian turned one wide amber eye on Justus, a picture of hurt dignity.

"You wound me! If you were any older I'd call you out to the challenge circle for that!"

"Pleas, Crius. All I'd have to do is put a hand you your head and wait for you to wear yourself out swinging at me with those stubby arms!"

"Oh! Low blow, Belleron!"

"It has to be if I intend to hit you, Quintus."

Crius laughed. "Too true, my friend. But I suspect you're not up in the middle of the night just to trade barbs with the handsomest one-eyed turian in Hierarchy space."

"You sure that's still true?"

"Ah. Nightmares?"

"Have to be asleep to have nightmares."

"Justus …"

"Don't 'Justus' me, Crius. I've already said it to myself.
"As long as one of us has."

Justus stood and picked over the array of scavenged weapons spread on the large stone table carved from the living rock. He hefted a battered Armax Crossfire and clipped it to the maglock on his back.

"I'm going to the perimeter."

"Valdus is on watch in The Tower." Crius gestured at the gently steaming pot on the chem stove. "She may welcome a drink, if you're headed that way."

Justus nodded and poured a fresh mug.

The Tower wasn't so much a tower as it was a spike of living rock the Bricklayers had carved in to a fantastical staircase. Figures from mythology and history cavorted up the side of the spire, their features worn nearly to obscurity, yet still, somehow recognizable. Justus listed them in his mind as he mounted the spiraling steps: Darius the Conqueror, who united the Dalacian peninsula three thousand years ago; Aphrestian Star-Cloaked, a beauty so rare primitive turians said the gods hung her in the sky as an inspiration to future generations; Crassus Invictine, commander of the Legion of Lost Souls, who first circumnavigated Palaven.

"Adrinax?" Justus whispered as he approached the final turn to the small hollow the sixteen-year-old sniper preferred for her watch shifts. "I've brought kastneh. Still hot, even. Crius made a fresh pot."

The low red shine of a custom-tuned omnitool flared in the darkness, picking out the edges of her long fringe and elegant mandibles. She held out a hand for the mug, never taking her eye from the scope of her rifle.

"Anything?"

She rasped a negative subvocal, barely loud enough for Justus to hear it at the entrance and shook her head as she lowered her weapon. "Nothing, not for days now. Since before … Bruce."

Justus cocked his head and thought back over the long sleepless hours. "You're right. Have we ever had a stretch this long?"

"Not for months. There was that time, early in the invasion when we thought it was over. But no, not recently."

Justus rubbed a hand over his eyes and scratched the hide of his neck. He could feel the dirt and sweat and grime scrape off and accumulate beneath his talons. He knew he stank, they all did, but … this was a ruin, an ancient ruin, they were lucky there was a well.

"Krrrythnakk." He swore pungently. "You think there's another mole? Where could they be coming from?"

Adrinax shrugged and sipped at her mug, steam obscuring her eyes for a moment.

"Spirits I hope not. Handing Bruce that gun, right there in front of Hannah, in front of his daughter, was the hardest thing I've ever done."

She gave him a hard look. "This is war. A war unlike any we've ever fought before." Her eyes flashed red in the light of her omnitool. "You'll probably have to do lots of harder things before this is all over. At least Bruce had enough control left to do it himself."

A tremor rattled the tower before he could reply.

"I thought this place was tectonically stable, that's why the Bricklayers chose it."

"It is."

"Then what …"

She was in motion before he could finish the thought, vaulting over the safety rail and landing heavily on the stair two levels below sending pebbles skittering into space. Justus raced after her, still not sure what was going on, but trusting the other turian's instincts.

He heard the screams when he was still meters from the entrance. Little 6-year-old Hannah broke from the dark, gaping maw of the ruin that had been their home, running pell-mell through the chaos, her high thin voice somehow carrying over the howls of the Reapers behind her. The light from Menae glinted from her envirosuit's helmet as she raced ahead of a widening crack in the ancient building's curtain wall.

Justus skidded to a halt before the tiny human, wrapping his long arms around her.

"Hannah! Hannah! What's going on? What happened?"

"Damnit, Jus! Don't stop! They're on our heels!" Somehow, Crius had reached them without Justus noticing. "We have to go! We have to go now!'

Over Hannah's shoulder Justus saw the crack in the wall widen, then the entire face of it collapsed as the Reaper's newest horror broke through in a tide of cold, dead flesh. Smaller even than Hannah the newest creatures were mole-like and rotund with long, sharp claws at the end of their arms. They were ideally suited to digging.

Volus. Justus thought, mind numb with shock. So that's what they look like out of the suit.

"Justus!" He felt someone give his shoulder a hard shake. Hannah whimpered into his neck as he stood, hefting her slight weight into his arms. Crius looked at him, Adrinax stood behind his one-eyed friend firing and reloading her rifle in one smooth motion after another. "We have to run."

It was nearly a whisper, but Justus nodded and spared one last glance at the crumbling fortress before he turned and followed his friends.

They ran forever.

There was nowhere to hide on the flat clay pan where the Bricklayers built their city. The sun rose, an angry red eye in the east, silhouetting the massive form of a Reaper in the distance. Hannah had fallen into a fitful, exhausted sleep in his arms. She woke with a jolt every few minutes, screaming in his ear and struggling in his arms until she came to her senses. Finally, after hours of running and dodging they finally reached the edge of the forest. Soaring karkkian trees offered them weak shelter among their boughs. Though they were all exhausted, they still managed to find the energy to scale an enormous trunk. There, in the cradle of the branches, they rested fitfully.

"What are we going to do?" Crius was sorting through the pitiful pile of their remaining weapons. "We don't have anything for Hannah to eat and I don't know about you, but woodscraft was never one of the subjects I chose to follow."

Adrinax sighed and opened her omnitool, the red glare flared bright then died as she flicked the display off. She sighed and closed her eyes a moment, mandibles flicking and shirring in agitation. Finally she opened her eyes and looked at the two younger turians.

"We can go to my hometown," she finally said.

"What?"

"I'm from this area. My hometown is just a few clicks from here. We can make it within the day." She looked at their small pile of arms. "There's an armory and military supply depot there. I was home on leave and on a trip with my brother when," She gestured around them vaguely. "All this happened."

"I'm not sure," Justus began. "Those last broadcasts the government was able to get out before the comm network went down told us to stay away from population centers if at all possible. And all of Vakarian's task force announcements said the same thing in the months leading up to the attack."

Crius opened his own 'tool and looked over the information he had downloaded about the area before the trip.

"She's got a point, Jus. We need food and ammo and water. We're not going to last more than another day or so if we don't get resupplied.

"It's a tourist town too, there'll be levo food." Adrinax glanced upward to where Hannah had curled into the crook of two great branches above them. "She's even worse off than we are. There's a spaceport too. Maybe there'll be a shuttle or something. We've got to get out of here, find some more survivors. I refuse to believe we're the only ones who've made it this long."

Justus rolled his neck in an unconscious imitation of the tall, Cipritine native he'd scrounged every bit of video on and watched over and over. Hannah whimpered and twitched in her nest of leaves and branches. Finally, he nodded his assent.

"You're right," he sighed. "There's just too much to gain from doing this. We'll head out at first light."

Trebia rose red and angry, painting the small band in bloody light as they moved through the ancient forest. The flowers had closed hours ago to protect their delicate petals from the star's brutal radiation, and the narrow, shiny leaves of the trees began to turn edge-on in an attempt to catch as little direct sunlight as possible, and maximize the amount of diffuse and reflected light they received.

Justus strained to catch sight of any wildlife as they jogged toward the town. Even the tiniest flicker of movement could give them a clue as to whether the Reaper forces were near. But the trees were still, save for a sporadic breeze that set their silvery leaves to shaking and glittering in the sun.

The quiet stillness was anything but peaceful. Instead, it gave the impression the trees were whispering among themselves, grumbling at the intrusion of unnatural creatures into their realm. Bowing branches shook like a stern warning to the interlopers.

Cold sweat gathered in the creases of Justus cowl and soaked into the fabric of his filthy tunic. He felt the spirit of the forest judge him as he raced along narrow paths and he knew he was found wanting. How could he not be? He'd just left everyone else in the fortress to die.

Adrinax was on point, carrying Hannah like a rucksack on her back. Humans, as a species may have more stamina, but she was still just a child, and she hadn't had a decent meal since the Reapers landed. Adrinax signaled a halt as they reached the edge of the forest.

"The town's just through there." She pointed through the trees to where they could just make out a few squat buildings. "The armory's on the far side of town. Normally, I'd recommend going around, but all the stores and our greatest chance of finding supplies for Hannah are in the city center anyway. I risked a passive scan on our way in and it's not showing any hostiles. There is a weird reading from the main plaza, but I can't tell if it's friendly weird or Reaper weird, so stay on your toes."

Justus nodded and took Hannah from Adrinax. Her face was drawn and a much lighter shade of brown than it had been months ago when they'd all set off from Cipritine. Her mouth was set in a determined line as he hefted her up to clip the cargo straps of her envirosuit around his chest and shoulders to give her a more secure perch.

She's lighter than my rifle, he thought as she settled in and tapped his right shoulder, silently signaling she was ready. If this thing doesn't end soon she's going to fade away right before my eyes. He spared a glance at the other two, taking note of where the formerly fitted tunics and trousers bunched and bagged on forms that were leaner now than they had been when the clothes were first donned. Which one of us will be next?

It only took them a few minutes to jog across the clearing to the outskirts of town. The silence of the forest had invaded here, too. The buildings with their empty, broken windows and half-open doors seemed to hold their breath as the children passed, then exhale when they moved on. Adrinax started down a side street but caught herself with a jerk before she'd gone more than a dozen steps. A soft keen colored her muttered words as she returned to the main thoroughfare. Justus was suddenly reminded that this was Adrinax' hometown; it was likely her family had died here.

The road they were following took a sharp left turn as it entered the plaza, blocking their view ahead. Adrinax stopped dead as she rounded the corner.

"That's … impressive," Crius said, craining his neck at the towering metal structure.

"This wasn't here before." Adrinax scrubbed a hand over face as though her exhaustion had created the monolith in the square.

It soared a good ten or twelve meters above their heads, metal arms bending in a swirling pattern that seemed to both beckon and repel. Justus' eyes itched as he forced himself to look at the sculpture. Its surface shone with an almost oily sheen that absorbed and reflected the light unnaturally.

"It doesn't matter," Crius said, jolting them from their shock. "It's not doing anything other than giving me the creeps. Let's get what we came for and get the hell out of here."

Adrinax nodded and they began sidling around the object. It didn't actually take up any more space than a small building, but they all took great pains to stay as far away as possible as they crossed the plaza. Even Hannah, on her own two feet now, clung tightly to Justus' hand.

Finally, Adrinax indicated a door and Crius hacked the lock, allowing them to slide into the cool dimness of an abandoned sporting goods store. Once the object was out of sight behind the door, it was like a sound – just on the edge of his hearing – had suddenly cut out. Justus found himself relaxing muscles he hadn't realized he'd tensed. He twitched his mandibles and rolled his neck, easing the knots that had formed. He noticed the others doing the same as they began ransacking the store.

It's nice to be back inside walls again, he thought as he rifled through a bin of packs, looking for something small enough for Hannah. I know they're not that much more defensible, but they're a damn sight more comforting than a tree.

Loaded up with food, water and other supplies, Adrinax led the small group back onto the street. No one was eager to go back out to where the object in the square sat and made the air around it thrum and throb painfully, yet in a register both far above and far below turian hearing. As they continued down the street, away from the plaza, Justus found himself straining to hear words in the silence and jumping at shadows. If the forest had judged him, the object at the center of town seemed to regard him with an almost palpable hunger.

Adrinax stopped at an intersection a moment, head cocked as though listening for something the others could not hear.

"Valdus?" Crius tapped her on the shoulder and the normally calm and collected sniper nearly jumped out of her skin. "You okay?"

"Yeah, fine." She violently shook herself and pointed. "This way."

The armory was a squat, windowless building just a few blocks from the plaza at the end of a narrow boulevard. Adrinax keyed her passcode and they all breathed a sigh of relief when the flickering red holo shifted to green.

They'd all received training on Hierarchy standard armory layout, it was easy for each of the children to find an example of their preferred weapon. Crius crowed with delight over the selection of shotguns and Adrinax made a bee line toward the sniper rifles. Justus was a bit more tech savvy. He led Hannah on a search for the stash of military-grade omnitools. His arm jerked painfully when Hannah stopped dead in front of a rack of pistols.

"What's up Hannah?" Justus asked, squatting down to look her in the face.

She grimaced and rubbed her right ear against her shoulder. The fabric of her envirosuit bunched under her helmet where it was too big for her slight frame.

"Daddy told me guns are dangerous. Not toys."

"Your daddy was right, but we're not going to be using these to play games."

"No. We're using them to kill Reapers. Like my daddy."

Justus' stomach churned at the flat statement delivered in her high, piping voice. He struggled to find something, anything to say to the child who had watched him hand her father the pistol that had ended his life. He was saved from having to say anything when she pointed at a weapon with one slender, gloved finger.

"I want that one."

"Wh- what?"

She pointed again at the exact copy of the weapon that had taken Bruce's life.

"I want that gun."

It was smaller than he remembered, somehow ludicrous in his large hand as he lifted the pistol from its resting place. It was lighter too, it should weigh more, having ended such a noble life. And yet, it was nearly too large for Hannah's slight human hand. She struggled to hold it properly in both hands. Then, with a deftness he could hardly believe, she ejected the heat sink and checked the ammo block before fitting the pieces back together and clipping it to the maglock on the hip of her envirosuit.

"It's not a toy. Daddy told me," she said, gazing up at Justus with wide brown eyes, bright with unshed tears. "You have to know how to use a tool.

She scrubbed her right ear against her shoulder again and held a hand out to the turian. He nodded at her gravely as he took it. The war had aged them all beyond their years.

Adrinax had found a prototype Krysae and stood in the hall, slowly running her hands over the weapon, learning its parts, and functions.

"Careful, Valdus, your girlfriend will get jealous if she sees you fondling that rifle." Crius slapped her on the back as he passed.

She hissed in annoyance and took a swipe at him with her ungolved talons. "My girlfriend has a rifle of her own."

Crius jerked back, barely avoiding injury to his single eye. "Spirits! I'm sorry, Adrinax! I didn't realize it was such a sore point!"

She shook her head then raised a hand to rub under her fringe.

"I'm sorry Quintus. It's just that my head is pounding like a parade field drum all of a sudden."

Justus shot her a sharp look. Hannah was once again rubbing her ear on her shoulder.

"The monolith." He muttered.

"What about it?" Crius looked up from the bin of mods. "It's a big creepy hunk of metal."

"Adrinax, you said it wasn't here before. What did you mean?"

She squinted at him in confusion. "It wasn't here before Aldi and I left for the Bricklayers'."

"It wasn't there before the invasion?"

"No."

"We have to get out of here. Right now!"

"Why? What is it Belleron?" Crius tucked his finds into his pack as he stood.

"The monolith wasn't here before the invasion, there hasn't been any construction because of the war. So where did it come from?"

"Spirits."

Again they ran.

Justus snatched Hannah onto his back as the little group pelted through the door and held her as steady as he could while she attached her straps. She was heavier with the pack of food and weaponry, but they couldn't leave the supplies behind and expect to live. So Justus simply gritted his teeth and scraped up what energy he had left to keep up with the others.

Finally Adrinax slowed her pell-mell flight, chest heaving and plates shining with exertion.

"What are you doing?" Crius asked incredulous that she would slow while they were still so close to the object. "We have to keep going."

"No."

"What?"

"No, we can't just leave it here."

"Why not? It gives me the creeps just thinking about it." Crius shuddered theatrically. "Why can't we leave it out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"Because it's what was indoctrinating people at the fortress." Justus put Hannah down as he caught up with the other two. "It makes sense. There was no other way anyone in the group had contact with Reaper artifacts."

Crius closed his eyes and sighed. "Let me guess, it's up to us to make sure no one else is affected by this thing."

Adrinax raised a brow plate at the younger turian.

"That's what I thought." He visibly shook off his exhaustion and fear and turned to the other two. "So, brave leaders, how do you propose we end this threat?"

"Explosives." For a moment, Justus was just a 10-year-old boy again. "Lots of them!"

"So, we're going back." It wasn't a question. Crius sighed again at the stony faces of the older children. "Anybody know how much exposure a body can take before they go to the dark side and start trying to drag their buddies along for the ride?"

Justus gaped at him.

"What? Surprised you didn't think to ask this question sooner?" Crius rubbed the top of his fringe. "No grass growing up here!" Suddenly he dropped his jovial act. "But really, do we even know how much more exposure we can take? I'm not really willing to risk losing myself to those … things."

"Justus and Crius should go!" Hannah hadn't spoken more than a few words since they'd left suddenly broke into the conversation. The three turians looked at her curiously. "Adrinax and me got the headaches like my dad. I don't wanna end up like my dad. We should stay."

The older children shared an uneasy glance among themselves.

"Well," Crius said brightly. "I guess that's decided!"

The trek back to the armory was as nerve wracking as it was uneventful. Both Crius and Justus found themselves jumping at shadows, listening for moans on the wind. Neither was sure which to fear more: the ominous, oppressive silence, or the sound of voices.

"You get that map from Valdus?"

"Yes, Crius, I got the map." Had the situation been any less dire, Justus might have found his friend's paranoia amusing. As it was, it served as an unnecessary, and grim, reminder of what was on the line. "I've already got a couple of boltholes and exits plotted. We're as safe as we can be."

"In a town where there's a thing that can turn us into Reaper thralls, you're using the word 'safe'?"

"It is what it is Quintus." Justus had no better way to help ease the other boy's fears, so he fell back on an old standby. The banter seemed to be helping ease Crius' edginess. "You got that door open yet?"

"Been open since we got here, rocks-for-brains, we weren't exactly focused on resecuring the building when we tore out of here."

"Right." Justus felt his neck heat in embarrassment at the memory of how they had pelted from the armory less than an hour ago. "Let's go get us some high explosives, strap them to that thing out there, and see just how big a fireworks show we're gonna give the girls."

Crius snorted and led the way down the darkened hallway.

A galactic standard hour later they had what Justus was pretty sure was an improvised explosive device that should be powerful enough to, at the least, damage the thing in the square enough that it's effective range would be severely curtailed.

"Uh, you think you have enough grenades strapped to that thing, Jus?" Crius eyed the bulky mishmash of components doubtfully. "I mean, there might be a few more in the bin if we shake it a bit."

"Very funny, Quintus."

"That's what I'm here for Belleron!"

"Let's get this thing to the square and then get the hell out of here."

"Sounds good to me."

Crius took point as Justus hefted the carryall with the device in it to his shoulder.

"You know, Jus, it's kinda strange."

Justus grunted as he caught his spur on a doorjamb, the satchel was heavy and it threw off his already uncertain adolescent balance. "What is?"

"Well, there's this nifty Reaper making machine right there in the square."Crius moved down the hallway slowly, constantly checking his blind side. "And, sure, this is a small town, but I know we haven't faced anything like the numbers this place could generate. Not at Bricklayers' and certainly not since we hit the forest."

"What's your point?"

"I'm just saying , don't you think it's been kind of …" Crius turned to look Justus full in the face as he keyed the front door open. "Easy?"

The street in front of the armory was packed with husks, cannibals and marauders. Justus yanked Crius back by the cowl and rapidly hacked the lock closed, hoping against hope that the marauders out there wouldn't be able to cut through its flimsy protection too easily.

"You were saying?"

"Cram it where the sun don't shine, Belleron. " Crius was rapidly tapping at his omnitool, looking for a way through the throng. "How do you feel about tunnels?"

"What?"

"Tunnels. The entire place is riddled with them," Crius lifted his arm to show Justus the map of the town's infrastructure. "I think we can get out of town that way and avoid the bulk of the horde waiting for us out there."

"Or …" Justus yanked on the other turian's arm and tapped a few commands.

"Ouch! And no 'or'! I hate it when you say 'or'! What's the 'or'?"

Justus continued typing command a moment longer. "Or we could complete the mission." He released the other turian's arm.

"Either you've gone completely Reaper or you're a genius, Justus." Crius took a long look at the map displayed in the air above his arm. "And given that I currently don't have anything even remotely resembling a better plan, I'm going to say it doesn't matter which you are. Let's do this."

"Keep running, Hannah!" Adrinax' lungs burned and her arms felt like they were being pulled out of their sockets every time she attempted to follow the slender human along her route through the tree branches.

The forest was no longer silent and judging. Now it roared with the sound of a thousand voices raised in an angry moan. Husks, cannibals, marauders and more of the hideous volus things paced them on the forest floor as they leapt from bough to bough. The others hadn't been gone long when the clicking, digitized verbalizations of a marauder had woken Adrinax from a fitful sleep, now she and Hannah raced through the trees scant meters above the heads of the pursuing horrors.

Hannah was having no problems slipping through the gaps between branches, ducking, weaving, swinging and sometimes even leaping from one tree to the next. Adrinax, on the other hand, did not come from a species originally adapted to this mode of transportation and she was finding it difficult to follow the human's slight form through the leaves. Her balance was all wrong, arrayed at the top of her body as it was, and her shoulders did not have the kind of rotational flexibility necessary to keep up with the girl.

It was only a matter of time.

"Keep going, Hannah! You're safe as long as you can keep going!"

Though the Reaper forces could climb when necessary, they were better at straight line climbs up building walls and cliff faces. The sheer drop caused them no fear. They had no fear here either, but their usual tactic of simply swarming up the side of their objective and over any obstacle, was of little use in an arboreal chase . They were fundamentally clumsy constructs and Adrinax suspected that even a young child, like Hannah, could survive quite handily in this situation. The sniper thanked the spirits of the forest for the protection they had received so far, but she knew it was only a matter of time before she would be called upon to fulfill her duty as a turian soldier.

They're herding us. She thought as she caught a glimpse of some of the buildings on the outskirts of town. They were closer than they had been the last time she'd been able to check. Spirits, they don't want to kill us! That's why they're just tracking us on the ground! Oh, oh no!

A branch cracked beneath her boots and Adrinax looked up at Hannah, too far away to provide any help to the other girl.

"Go!" Adrinax shouted as the brittle limb beneath her gave out. "Keep running! Find Justus and Crius! They'll …"

The remainder of her encouragement to the tiny human was swallowed by the triumphant howls of the horde below her.

"You sure you got this, Jus?" Crius didn't spare a glance over his shoulder at his friend where he worked to set the explosive device in the maintenance tunnel intersection directly beneath the main plaza, and the monolith.

"Yeah, just gimme a sec. I need to set the relay and the deadman's switch."

"The what?"

"Dead. Man's. Switch. I'm tying this damn thing to my heartbeat. That way, if these things get me, then at least I'm not going alone."

"So kind of you to think that I will want to share in their, inevitably fiery, demise."

"Are you kidding? I'm counting on you getting caught first so I have enough time to get to safety." Justus straightened from the device, keying a few, last commands into his omnitool. "I don't have to beat these things in a race, I only have to outrun you, Quintus. Well you and the bomb, I really have no idea how big this explosion is going to be. IED manufacture just wasn't one of my stronger subjects."

"That's cold, Belleron." Crius shot his lifelong friend a look. "That thing ready?"

"Yeah"

Moans began echoing down the tunnel towards the pair.

"Right on cue. Let's get the hell out of here!" Justus drew his own weapon from it' holster. "How do you feel about a fighting retreat?"

"Sounds great to me. Which way?"

"Any way will work at this point."

They pelted down the tallest corridor, taking turns firing behind them at the advancing wall of groaning flesh and cybernetics. Crius had lost all track of their location when Justus yanked his cowl hard down a narrow side tunnel.

"Here! A ladder!"

"I just hope there's nothing waiting for us on the other end!" Crius turned to fire down their back trail. "Go! I'll cover you!"

Justus didn't stay to argue, simply began hauling himself up the ladder, hand over hand. His shoulders and hands ached by the time he reached the top. The hatch at ground level was simple to open and Justus spared a cautious peek through a crack before opening it fully.

"It's clear! Crius get your ass up here!"

Justus saw the muzzle flashes from his friend's shotgun flare a few more times before the other boy began his own climb.

"MOVE! I don't know how powerful the explosion will –"

Crius was nearly at the top and Justus reached down to grip his forearm. He braced himself to pull, squinting his eyes shut for a bare moment at the exertion. A brilliant red light flared behind his eyelids and a violent explosion nearly ripped Crius from his grip.

"Damnit Jus! I wasn't clear!" the younger boy glared at his friend with his one eye. "You could have killed me!"

"It wasn't me!" Justus was just as baffled as his friend. "I swear! I'd have never …"

Something off to the left, behind the nearest buildings caught his eye. A huge plume of smoke rose from the city center, but that wasn't what he'd noticed. There, in the field, less than ten meters from where the tunnel emerged, lay a marauder. It was largely intact, showing no evidence of wounds or any real reason why it shouldn't be killing the pair of them right now. And behind it was another. And another. And another. The entire field was littered with the things.

"What the hell happened?"

"I don't know, Crius."

Justus turned to investigate further but was halted when a small body intersected, violently, with his own.

"Oof! Hannah! You're okay!"

"Yeah! They were chasing us, and they almost had Adrinax, but then they all fell down and we got away!"

Adrinax limped along behind the excited younger girl.

"Did your explosive do this?"

"I don't know!"

"Well whatever it was, the Hierarchy needs to know." Suddenly Justus remembered that Adrinax had already begun her service. "We have to find some way to tell them what happened here."

"Yeah, but, can it wait a minute?" Justus yawned hugely, and Crius echoed him, then Hannah, and finally, even Adrinax was caught up in the jaw-cracking, mandible-stretching yawn. "I think we're safe enough for now, and I'm so tired."

Adrinax looked around for a second. The forest behind her no longer seemed hostile towards them, the shimmering leaves and sighing trees waved a benediction toward the little group of survivors. "You know, Belleron, I'm getting the feeling this isn't just here. This feels, I don't know, bigger, somehow. But you're right. A report can wait until we all get a little shut eye. I know just the place."