I (unfortunately) don't own or claim to own the title of Mass Effect, all credit for the weapons/powers and character types goes to Bioware.


Bullets whizzed by Azureth's head as the Asari quickly ducked back into cover after firing a few quick shots from her Scorpion, causing two of the Cerberus operatives following her to explode in a shower of gore. The other two members of her squad, another Asari named Amira and a human Fury named Xera, followed after her, vaulting over the makeshift barriers to settle beside her. Amira quickly shot up a dome of pulsing Biotic energy around them, making the volley of bullets fired at them ricochet back at the soldiers who shot them, doing little damage but knocking them back effectively. Xera took this slight reprieve as a change to reload, quickly popping the spent thermal clip out and replacing it with another.

"I can't hold this up forever, we need a plan!" Amira said, her hands still in the air maintaining the dome around them. Already the field was wavering, letting the occasional stray bullet through to zip just over their heads.

Azureth quickly took charge of the situation. "Okay, Amira, I need you to hold them off; do whatever you need to do: a Singularity field, a Shockwave, something that'll hold 'em off long enough for us to get to that transmitter."

At this, she stuck her head out of cover to look past their attackers at the glowing orange screen of the console just inside the room beyond. "Xera, I need you to teleport ahead, your Annihilation Field will incapacitate them long enough for me to slip around and take them out from behind, not to mention set them up for some pretty nasty Biotic explosions. Just keep pressure on them, we need this data."

The other women nodded in understanding. "Good. On my count: Three…two…now!"

Amira let the pulsating dome disappear in a burst of Biotic energy, sending bullets flying in every direction and giving Xera enough time to quickly create a field of black Biotic tendrils around her and flip through the air, disappearing and reappearing among the Cerberus operatives. Amira quickly used a pulse of Biotic energy to dash out of cover, causing several Cerberus not thrashing in Xera's field to fall to the ground with a couple of bursts from her Hornet.

Azureth followed close behind Amira, taking out a Phantom as she tried to sneak up on Xera, who was preoccupied setting off Biotic explosions in quick succession by hitting the soldiers in her field with small, dense balls of biotic energy. Amira sent up another dome of Biotic energy just in time to stop a missile fired from an Atlas that had just appeared from around the corner of the compound. After dropping the dome both she and Azureth hit it with strong stasis fields, which combined were just enough to slow the hulking machine, if not completely stop it. Xera detonated the field around her sending the remaining soldiers around her flying before teleporting forward and appearing inside the cockpit of the Atlas. She quickly grabbed the pilots head and twisted sharply, snapping his neck before setting the self-destruct and teleporting out, into Amira's waiting dome, which protected them from the blast that followed.

Amira yet again dropped the dome as Azureth took out the last fleeing soldier with a quick cascading shockwave of biotic energy.

Xera sighed in relief as her barrier fully restored itself after her last teleport. "That's the last of them."

"For now," Azureth said, "but there'll be more, I can assure you of that, let's hurry and get this done."

"Agreed, let's go." Amira said, starting for the main building on the far side of the compound.

The other two feel into step beside her, their weapons still drawn and ready for more security to show up and try to stop them from reaching their destination.

When they reached the door, they noticed the tell-tale red color of an engaged lock. The two Asari looked pointedly at Xera, who already knew she'd be the one teleporting into the room and unlocking he door from her comrades.

With a quick flip and a small flash of purple energy she was on the other side of the door, quickly pressing the unlock button on the holographic panel, opening it for her squadmates, who stepped in, returning their collapsing weapons into their holsters.

Azureth took the seat in front of the console, activating her omni-tool and running it above the console, almost instantly breaking through any security and downloading the files that were stored inside. When the download finished, she waver her still glowing omni-tool over the console again, causing it to start to spark and smoke before completely shutting down.

"Done and done." Azureth said as she stood. She pressed a button on her omni-tool, where a tiny holographic Shepard appeared.

"Azureth, I see you made it okay. Did you get the data?" He asked, some of the tension that had been obvious in his holographic figure melting away.

"Yes, we got it. It should be uploaded into the Normandy's systems as we speak."

"Good work, I'll send Cortez to collect you, see you when you get back." With that, the hologram crackled and disappeared.

"He's not a man of many words, is he?" Xera said.

"Not really, but he's the only chance this galaxy has against the Reapers." Amira said, hearing the sound of engines approaching.

"I hear you," Azureth agreed. "Now let's get back, I'm exhausted."

The other two nodded and made noises of agreement before starting for the door.