Sarath and Mara began walking towards Felix and Feron. It was silent in the room, but they were all fully alert. The four of them were highly aware of the danger the reapers brought with them, and they were aware of how much higher the risk factor got as they stayed on Thessia. For now they didn't have a choice; for now, they were stuck in that building until they were killed by reapers or chased out.
"We've got to get a move on," Mara broke the silence.
"I think we'd all work together better if we introduced ourselves, or if we at least had names to call each other by." Feron wasn't taking any chances. Nobody replied to her suggestion beyond a subtle form of agreement, so she decided she'd go first, "Well, I'm Feron. I'm an asari commando, and my crew was just taken down by a bunch of ravagers." Though they were small, the husks were fast, and they knew how to keep enemies distracted while bigger threats moved in. Feron knew the risks that even the smallest enemies imposed on the asari. She wanted to get revenge on the reapers, she wanted to kill them all, but she knew she'd have to do so carefully. She also thought tactically.
Feron witnessed a crew of eleven soldiers get taken down by just a handful of these monsters. She wasn't going to let these three down, too. "It was rough, but trust me, I'm just as strong a soldier as I was ten minutes ago. If not, I'm stronger." Feron stood with her back erect, confident. She took a deep breath and nodded towards Felix.
Feron was at the maiden stage at her life, being 349 years old. She was close to becoming a matron, but the idea of settling down in one place seemed impossible. If she was to reach that stage any time soon, she'd be hurt even more deeply.
"Felix. I'm a vanguard. I haven't been at this long, but I sure do pack a punch."
"And I'm Sarath. I'm an older vanguard; I'm watching over Felix. We came from the same training camp. I'm assigned as her guardian and her teacher." Sarath moved over to stand by Felix. She placed her hand on Felix's back; the two of them had a strong friendship. The training camp they were from was one on the strip across the bridge they were on when Felix put her barrier up.
Felix was young and inexperienced. She was also at the maiden stage in her life, but she was only 136 years old. Though she had extremely strong biotics, she didn't quite grasp the idea of cooling down. Sure, she had practiced a lot daily, but she never had been in a real battle. She was never sent to take down a stray Ardat-Yakshi, and she was never taken to fight off the collectors. She was way too young when they started hitting.
Felix was a prime example of the "high risk" aspect of being a vanguard.
Sarath was a bit older than Felix. In fact, she was in the matriarch stage of her life, and felt the need to guide. Felix lost her parents in a battle against the collectors, and so Sarath was assigned to her.
She was sent to fight off collectors when they hit nearby human colonies. The asari depend on other races for reproduction, and humans were a huge source of mates. Also, the asari could produce barriers strong enough to keep the flying swarms off of the humans. Though many asari died on these missions, Sarath was one of the lucky few who made it out alive.
Sarath was indeed the guardian of Felix. She was to protect, to teach, and to travel with her. Sarath has a high drive for surivival, but she also feels the need to plan. She won't go into battle without sorting out what to do first. She wasn't nearly as "high risk" as her assigned asari.
"I'm Mara, an asari adept. I train for combat as a hobby, and I've been doing it for a while. Though this is my first time in battle, I doubt I should need some guidance." Mara was right. Her skills were well-developed, and when in high-stress situations, she didn't panic, she simply knew how to survive. However, you must disregard the near-death experience with the brute moments before she charged through the door.
She could use warp after warp, and mastered defensive skills as well, such as singularity and barrier. She hardly used stasis because that only worked on enemies she could decimate in a second. Mara carried only a light SMG and a missile launcher with two rockets. Her light weight travel kept her nimble and quick as she needed to be. This asari also possessed the ability to use biotics in order to teleport from place to place when all strength is focused on doing so.
Like two of the others, Mara had only reached the maiden stage of her life. She was 300 years old, which made her the second youngest. However, she was a support member necessary for this crew's survival.
"We should probably get a move on," Mara said. "That brute was determined to kill me. That wasn't the first encounter I've had with that one. It's chased me from a few bridges over." And with that, she heard a bang and a growl.
The brute's heavy breathing seemed more and more distant. This wasn't good news.
"It's going back to communicate with the reapers," Feron said. "It can't get in on its own. The building is going to blow!" And she ran to unlock the back entrance. The other three followed. Felix, Mara, and Sarath reloaded their guns and looked back to guard the room in case anything else found its way in. The door slid open and Feron commanded, "Everyone! Go, go, go!" She wasn't going to take refusal as answer this time. These three would be her only chance at survival.
All four of them started running, and in response to the husks waiting outside (those things never did quit), biotic throws and shockwaves were being launched by all four of them. They were halfway across the bridge when one of the reapers charged up their laser. A loud blast and the building they were in seconds ago collapsed to the ground.
Mara threw up a barrier around them to protect them from the blast as much as possible. Feron looked at what used to be her base, looked down, swallowed her guilt, and ran with the others.
Feron wasn't about to let the deaths and downfall of her old squad get in the way of keeping her new companions alive. She'd do anything for them at this point, and she just met them.
The four asari crossed the bridge completely, and then the same reaper that tore down the other building tore down the three in front of them. This time Feron wasn't close enough to the others to be protected from the beam, and she got a little too much heat from it. The shockwave also blew her into a plant pot on the bridge. Her back hit it hard and she fell on all fours, clenching her teeth in pain. She sucked in hard threw her teeth, and she yelled for her companions. Felix came running back.
"You okay?" She asked Feron.
"Yeah. Fantastic." Feron replied with her eyes shut tight, and her right hand supporting her lower back. She tried to get up, but she failed.
Felix called for Sarath to help her, and the two of them got Feron up on her feet. "The reaper won't quit! We've got to get out of its sight!" Shouted Mara.
The reaper charged up its beam again, and Felix and Sarath got Feron completely off of her feet. Each of her arms was propped on another asari's shoulder, and she crossed her ankles and picked her feet up off the ground. Sarath and Felix started running, and by the time the reaper blew the bridge in half, they were far enough away from it to be safe this time. Regardless, Mara threw a barrier up for them just in case. Luckily, they cleared the area of husks before they had to make a run for it.
They carried the weakened asari around the rubble, and their was a ravager hiding behind it. A barrier, a few warps, and a big shockwave took care of that.
They was another bridge that went down to a lower level undamaged by the reapers. It was a small building, and the reapers couldn't locate the group behind the ruins it left behind.
It turned out the building they came across was a house. Once inside, they located the keys to a shuttle resting on the counter. "Well, look at this," Mara said to the other three, keys in her hand and a small smirk going across her face. "Looks like we can find a break."
"If any of us knows how to pilot," replied Felix.
"I can." Feron provided a small beacon of hope for them, as dependent and weakened as she was at the time. She figured a couple days' rest could help her recover enough to fully function and pilot the shuttle to someone who could really help them out.
Felix looked at Feron with a sense of admiration. She knew there was something about the commando that peaked her interest. It was the strength, the dominance, and their perseverance she possessed. Felix smiled and insisted, "I think it's best if you sit down for a couple days. We could use your full attention trying to pilot outside of the reapers' grasp."
Felix and Sarath helped Feron over to a couch. They laid her down, and Sarath went to get something to remedy Feron's pain. She began searching through the cabinets.
Felix pulled an ottoman over to Feron and sat beside her. She rubbed Feron's forehead. That was all she knew to do to comfort someone. Felix was always the one being watched after, it was different caring for somebody else. It was nice.
Mara made her way over to the family room. She picked up a picture. It was an asari, a turian, and two children. That must have been the family that was there before the reapers came. They must have had well thought out evacuation plans. They hadn't taken the shuttle, to remain undetected, and their house was untouched, meaning they weren't abducted or overrun. At least not here.
"How are you feeling?" Felix's hand moved from Feron's forehead to her cheek, and Feron's eyebrows raised a little bit. Felix pulled her hand back, realizing what she did, but she didn't make a noise.
"Like shit," Feron responded. She tried, hardly, to let out a laugh, but she winced in pain.
"Well, like, where does it hurt?" Felix cocked her hide to the side a bit. Now she had her hand on Feron's upper arm.
"I'm sore everywhere, but my lower back is where I really got hit." She shrugged slightly.
"Oh, well, hopefully we can find something in this house to make you feel better." Sarath started making her way towards the couch Feron and Felix were at. "Maybe there's some medi-gel in here-"
"Coincidentally, I found some beneath the sink," Sarath interrupted. She tossed the medi-gel up and let it spin, then she caught it.
"I'll apply it," Felix said, quickly.
Sarath gave her a look of interest, but she kept quiet. The matriarch let her be; she decided to be little more leniant considering these might be the final days of Felix's life.
Mara put the picture frame down and walked over to the others. "Anything I can do to help?"
Sarath answered, "Help me sit her up." Sarath and Mara sat Feron up, and Sarath lifted her shirt up in the back. Felix massaged the medi-gel onto Feron's sore area. The painkilling effect kicked in almost immediately, but Feron was still advised to get a good night's sleep.
"Sleep well tonight. We'll need you tomorrow," Mara advised Sarath.
Felix asked, "So I take it we're camping out here tonight?"
"Exactly," said Mara.
"How do we plan on remaining undetected?"
"I don't think the reapers will think we're here. As long as we keep the house dark and make sure our voices are low, we may go undetected."
"We could just blow out the bridge," Feron said. "Then they can't get to us. The shuttle is in the garage out back; we won't need that bridge in the morning."
"Do we really want to make all that noise?" Sarath asked worriedly.
"None of those monsters are nearby right now, and the reapers can't detect noise that well. They'll be scanning the area for asari to annihilate, and as long as the vessels don't detect us, we'll be safe."
"I'm not sure how I feel about this-" Sarath stood up, her eyes glew with concern.
"It's our only option," Felix said. She looked at Sarath with an expression of reassurance, then back at Feron. She nodded and grabbed a missile launcher off her back. She made her way towards the door. By the time she made it to the door, Sarath objected.
"No, I'll go," she said before walking quickly over to Felix. She stuck her hand out, and Felix put the missile launcher in it. "Nothing's happening to you." Sarath opened the door, looked around, then aimed at the bridge after detecting nothing, and fired a missile. The bridge exploded, and she took a deep breath as the rubble fell down, down, down.
She walked back into the house, handed the launcher back to Feron, and walked over to the loveseat. "I think it'd be best if we slept in shifts, excluding Feron. She needs all the rest she can get," Sarath proposed.
"Sounds reasonable to me," Mara answered. Felix nodded a nod of confirmation.
Mara and Sarath had already taken their shifts, and now it was Felix's turn. She heard a noise like metal sliding against metal, and she turned away from the front window and was fully alert. She went and shook Sarath's shoulder to wake her up. "What is it?" thought Sarath was just woken up, she was fully alert.
"There's something- there's something out there. Out back. Sounded like metal, maybe?" Felix said nervously, with many breaks in between words. She shook her head and her eyebrows were raised in concern. She immediately looked over at Feron. "You get Mara up, I'll update Feron, and make sure she's okay to pilot. We can not stay here." Sarath nodded and went to wake Mara up. She updated her quickly on the situation, and Mara went to grab the keys.
"Feron, you've gotta get up. We need you now. How are you feeling?" Felix questioned Feron.
"I feel perfectly fine, but what's going on?"
"We don't know yet, but we've got to go."
Felix tied to help Feron up, but Feron grabbed her wrist. "I've got it; thank you," Feron said with a smile. "I appreciate your concern and care. Thank you, again."
"Come on; we may not have much time," Mara said in an elevated whisper.
All four of them opened the back exit and caught sight of the landing pad. They weren't alone.
There was a horde of husks, three empty pikes, a marauder, a pike with an asari on it, and a banshee. A cloud of biotic power grew larger and larger around the banshee, and the marauder immediately found cover. The husks ran straight towards the crew.
Mara threw up a barrier and began launching the husks into the air with biotic throws. Feron, Felix, and Sarath found cover. Feron shot the last husk down with her Avenger, then began firing at the marauder. Sarath saved her power for the banshee and began looking around the landing pad for potential cover in case the banshee chased them out of their current comfort zone. Felix finished the marauder off by tossing a biotic warp at it. She smiled a triumphant smile at Feron. Feron smiled back.
Now their attention was on the banshee. Feron began opening fire on it, but her bullets weren't doing a very good job of taking down its barrier. Felix stood up and had a lift grenade in each one of her hands.
"No!" Sarath demanded. The banshee's biotic field was still growing. "We can't risk blowing the shuttle!"
"Fine," and Felix put her grenades back up. She pulled out her heavy pistol and opened fire on the banshee, who was now teleporting towards Sarath. The banshee warmed up a biotic warp and tossed it in Sarath's direction. Mara focused her barrier over at Sarath and protected her from the warp.
The banshee let out a scream and her biotic field blew everyone back. Their movement speeds were impaired by the warp effect this had, but luckily the banshee was almost dead. Mara used reave on it, and all four of them ran towards the shuttle and left the banshee to die. She fell to the ground and disintegrated.
Feron got into the driver's seat, and Mara and Sarath got into the back seat. "Get in!" Feron commanded. "The passenger seat is open."
"Wait," Felix said, and she grabbed a note from underneath the shuttle.
"Safety is at Firebase Goddess. Evac shuttles are currently available. Hurry, bridges are scheduled to be destroyed to isolate the reapers," it read. The family must have known somebody in the military. The asari that was still left on the pike whispered a final request, "Please, please save, my sister," and she struggled to point a finger at the bridge. Felix looked over and saw a little asari's head peeping over the edge "They're here, they're here to save you, they're good." The pike finally did half its job and killed her; however, she didn't convert. She must not have been an Ardat Yakshi. However, the genes were in the family because the mother obviously was.
The mother's tie to the military must have kept her from being killed, or she hadn't become an Ardat-Yakshi yet.
"I'm saving the little one," Felix said. The other three looked at her in confusion and concern. They hadn't seen the little asari on the bridge.
Felix went up to her, "Your sister asked I save you. I promise you, I really promise you, we're getting you to safety. Everything will be okay."
"You killed my mother," the little asari replied. She cowered in fear, and let out fearful shrieks.
"No, they killed your mother. We killed the monster they made her. You're safe with us, I promise. The reapers won't get you."
The little asari was still reluctant, but she didn't do anything to fight off Felix when she reached down to pick her up.
"It's alright, I promise," and she carried the little one back to the shuttle.
"Who's that?" Sarath asked, before any of the others, with a high sense of alert and concern.
"I don't know yet, but I promised we'd save her," Felix replied. She looked at Sarath with a look that warned her not to say anything that would concern the new crew member too much.
"Well, we'll need to know something about her," Sarath continued. "Do you have a name, sweetie?" her maternal instincts kicked in.
The little girl didn't answer. "Come on, it's okay. We just need a name, so we can talk to you directly."
"Rila," she mumbled. She bowed her head down in fear and sadness. She didn't want what happened to her family to happen to her.
"You're safe with us, Rila," Felix comforted her. Rila was resting on her knee, and Feron was piloting the shuttle towards Firebase Goddess. She knew the location because of her job in the military. Fortunately, she knew emergency procedures as well.
"Shit!" she exclaimed right after they heard a loud bang and the ship shook. Rila buried her head in her arms, but she was quiet.
"What was that?" Mara asked. She was in the seat that took the hardest hit.
"I'm not sure yet, but we're going in for a crash landing! Hold on!"
Felix held Rila close to her, and hid her concern so that Rila wouldn't get freaked. It was almost like her matron stage hit early. Hopefully the change would be for the better.
Mara and Sarath grabbed on to the seats in front of them for dear life. Feron pushed herself back as hard as she could while still maintaining control of steering. They hit the ground at a slight angle and slid across a bridge, but they were safe. Since the slope of their crash was so little, they didn't fly out of their seats. They just got slung forward a bit.
"Are you alright?" Felix asked Rila.
"Yes," she whispered back.
Feron looked over at Felix, a little concerned. "Are you okay?" she whispered.
"I'm fine," Felix said back, raising one side of her lips into a half smile. Feron couldn't help but to smile back, and then she looked down nervously. She looked into the back of the ship after a second to make sure the rest of them were fine. The two in the back only had sore knees and their wrists were falling asleep, but that was all.
"Well, we've got to get a move on, the firebase isn't far from here," Feron told the others. They all got out and stood together outside of the ship on the side that faced Firebase Goddess. It was only 3 bridges away for now, and then they looked back to see the ravagers that shot the ship down. They were over 9 bridges away, and they were walking the other way. To avoid another confrontation, they started making their way over to the base.
"No!" Felix screamed, and Rila cowered at Felix's knees, as a missile came down from the sky. It hit the next bridge. It was one of the bridges planned to be destroyed in an effort to isolate the reapers. Now, this group of five had to find their way to Firebase Goddess before the asari military isolates them, too, with the reapers.