Partial Extraction
Prime Unit Five scanned the area slowly, his gigantic torso rotating in time with his bright, single optic. Benning was a moderately arid planet, though human colonists had not seemed deterred by this. The planet had, up until now that is, held a sizable human population compared to an average colony like Eden Prime, or Feros. His deduction from the amount of Cerberus radio chatter and civilian distress calls meant a significantly reduced population for this city at least, and he began moving with renewed purpose.
His three teammates moved up alongside him, flanking his larger frame and using him as cover to move up. There was Leraak, a krogan warrior of clan Urdnot freshly minted from his trials. The krogan seemed more interested in killing than saving, though Unit Five could see that as being the same thing in this scenario.
Ilea T' Ora, an asari maiden who'd been a mercenary before the Reapers had struck. Her files suggested she could be a useful combatant and had a history of mental quickness, though her temper seemed to be an aberration amongst asari. Both the krogan and asari moved with purposeful strides, confidence exemplified and without hesitation, but the last member stayed back.
A salarian by the name of Palok Renten. Older by salarian standards, into his late thirties and with a rock solid military background. He'd been in the STG most of his life, which meant most of his personnel file was blacklined. He moved with far more caution than the other two, eyes darting this way and that at the slightest sound.
The fact that all of these races were not only on a team, but working coherently and efficiently symbolized a great step forward in galactic interactions. The geth had long been watching the galactic stage, monitoring the many races and how they maneuvered amongst each other for power and gain. The Reapers had, in many ways, been one of the best things to happen to this galaxy and her people. He knew organics would find this logic faulty, and so kept silent on the matter. He usually did anyway, preferring to speak only when spoken to.
Such thoughts were a great sticking point for the collective as well. All geth had similar thoughts, and organics would always find pure logic to be against their goals and emotions. They understood this, and had reached consensus that it did not matter. If organics wished to live that way, then they could. The geth saw no reason to impose order on beings who didn't want it; it invited nothing symbiotic or stimulating to eliminate something they found to be "different".
Gunfire from up around a set of prefabs forced him to dispense with philosophical musings, and ready his spitfire in preparation for hostilities. Why Cerberus' men had gone rogue here was still unknown, but firing on civilians was most obviously their goal. Dead bodies littered the streets, a Cerberus soldiers corpse here and there where the humans had managed a successful kill in self defense.
"We should move faster. This hunk of scrap metal is just slowing us down." Leraak was the first to speak since they'd landed, and his derogatory comment got ignored as simple krogan bluster and testosterone.
"Will need geth platform when the fighting starts. Likely to be heavily outnumbered. Superior firepower and armor will-"
"-Slow us down." Leraak finished for the salarian. The older STG member gave the krogan youth a withering look over his shoulder, but shook his head and remained silent. Despite the krogan's complaining, he did still stay with the group, keeping pace with the asari in the lead. The woman stayed very quiet, her entire focus on her surroundings rather than the chatter around her.
Unit Five's optic snapped to motion erupting near the far end of the street, where civilians backpedaled from the entrance, firing weapons at something inside that appeared to be chasing them. Sure enough, a handful of Cerberus soldiers emerged after them, taking up positions to fire on the inaccurate and desperate colonists. Before his team could take up cover and fire back, most of the human civilians were already dead, though some managed to limp to safety.
He lifted his Spitfire, spooling it up as the others opened fire and suppressed the Cerberus team. While Unit Five did not approve of the enemies goals or doctrine, he admired Cerberus' cohesion and discipline. As one, they leaned from their cover to lob smoke and frag grenades at his team. Immediately he threw out a hex shield in front of his squadmates, making the grenades bounce away and explode harmlessly. The smoke however, made things more difficult. Unit Five activated his thermal imaging, though his teammates had no such luxury. They blind fired over the horizontal cement pillar they had taken as cover, peppering the Cerberus position ineffectually.
Leraak opened up with his Saber, though he didnt look where he was shooting, instead looking at him as he yelled. "Move your ass, machine! Get out in front so we can flank!"
"Acknowledged." Unit Five's deep baritone voice easily carried over the gunfire, and he activated his siege pulse generator to boost his shields. He began walking towards their position, firing his Spitfire in rapid-fire to suppress while he advanced. True to their word, his teammates began to skirt around the edges of the prefabs, preparing to flank while he distracted the enemy team. The incoming fire he received put a bit of strain on his barriers, but not so much as to seriously deplete them.
He finally closed the distance with the enemy soldiers, grabbing one with heavy electrical currents powerful enough to lift him from the floor and electrocute him. The remaining men began to fall back, firing their mattock's in a last attempt to suppress him and gain some distance. They ran right into his team, who caught them completely off guard with a hail of bullets and biotics. Most died before they knew of the danger, while the last was hurled across the room to slam into the far wall at bone crushing speed by Ilea.
"Come on, there's a lot more where those came from." Ilea's dead panned voice spurred the rest into motion once they ensured all the opposition were well and truly down.
"I am currently detecting over two hundred requests for assistance over broad band channels. Cerberus personnel are mobilizing to deal with our incursion." Unit Five's synthesized tone vibrated the air with it's bass, but the others seemed to take it in stride.
"Understood. We should find our objective quickly before we are overrun." Palok spoke quickly as usual, though his voice sounded strained, as though he weren't sure this was a good idea anymore.
