Contact
Being careful to remain concealed and under cover, she opened her pack, pulling out her customized Onyx armor and Hahne-Kedar weapon systems. Glad I opted to bring these along. For a split second her mind went back to one of the maxims that her Platoon Sergeant, Gunnery Chief Santiago was always preaching: It pays to be lucky, but most of the time you have to make your own luck.
Kyler took one last look at the demolished spaceport and decided against going inside to search for survivors. There probably wasn't anything she could do to help them anyway. More importantly, she knew that there was a short period of time immediately after anyone debarked from their orbital transports when they were vulnerable to counter-attack. In fact, until the Navy had finally made it a point to upgrade that capability the year prior, the Marines had always made it common practice to train on how to quickly deploy from transports for that very reason. Most people though, including pirates and slavers, did not take the time to practice something that seemed so insignificant at first glance. If she and Diego could get to the pirates' LZ quickly enough, they might have a chance to exploit that weakness.
Diego was staring at the wreckage. They didn't have time for this. Shepard grabbed him by the collar and yanked him around, shaking him out of his stupor. "Forget about them, they're dead. If you want to save the others, we need to get to their LZ. Now." Without waiting to see if he was coming, she let go and started sprinting as hard as she could from one concealed position to the next, rapidly making her way towards where the transports had landed. We're not strong enough to defend, so we'll have to attack. Don't think about numbers, Kye, just focus! Numbers mean nothing; will is everything! Faster! You have to move faster!
When they got to the clearing where the first two pirate vessels were debarking, she immediately found some cover and breathed a huge sigh of relief in spite of herself. Her suspicions were correct. The batarians were clearly over-confident due to their large numbers and the fact that their prey had no means of escape since the spaceport was destroyed. Consequently, they were taking their sweet time getting off the transports and getting their gear organized for the inevitable rape of Elysium. First mistake. Still observing from her concealed position, Shepard quickly noticed that most of them had taken their armor off to unload heavy weapons and explosives off of the transports, and those that were wearing armor hadn't activated their shields. None of them were wearing helmets, and some of the raiders were only carrying their sidearms. It was easily the most disorganized, least secure "military" debarkation she had ever witnessed. The pirates were clearly not concerned about local security forces or resistance at all. Can't say I blame you too much. I wasn't impressed with their security either, but you still should have established some sentries around your LZ. Second mistake. That's when Shepard saw their third mistake: the fuel line for the second transport was leaking onto the ground about thirty meters from where she and Corporal Ramirez were hiding. Bingo. She motioned to him. His eyes got big as she pointed to the fuel leak, and he smirked as he turned towards her. He understood.
It took them less than a minute to prep the fuses on the charges. Twenty seconds was an eternity in combat, but having the extra seconds would give them a little more time to put some additional space between them and the blast radius. She was willing to take her chances with the unsuspecting raiders, who might be able to drain their shields in that time, as opposed to an explosion up close, which almost certainly would.
Shepard and Ramirez stealthily low-crawled from their position to the edge of the clearing. They locked eyes for a second. He nodded. Here goes nothing.
They stood up and started sprinting, covering the remaining twenty meters of open ground to the leaking fuel line on the transport in a few agonizingly long seconds. Being careful to avoid getting any fuel on herself, Kyler dropped to one knee and took a quick look around. Amazingly, no one had noticed them yet. Better exploit that before they figure out where you are and what you're trying to do. She made eye contact with Diego. He was going to need some time to set the charges. She motioned towards the far side of the transport. He took one last deep breath, looked back down at the explosives, and set the timer. Thirty seconds to go. In one fluid motion Shepard drew her Hahne-Kedar shotgun and put up a barrier of dark energy around herself as she ran around the corner of the transport to where the raiders were debarking.
One.
Two.
A startled pirate looked up just in time to see the muzzle flash that turned his head into pink mist.
Three.
Exclamations of surprise were broken up by successive shotgun blasts that dropped an additional two batarians who were carrying a crate filled with rockets of some kind.
Four.
She dashed towards a squad-sized group standing just beyond another stack of crates carrying chemical satchel charges a few meters in front of her, crumpling the hatch of the nearest transport with a burst of warping dark energy as she did so. The muffled screams of the batarians being crushed by the collapsing metal didn't even register in her brain.
Five.
In one sinuous motion Shepard vaulted over the crate and kicked another batarian under the bridge of his nose, snapping his neck, as she simultaneously caught two more straight in the chest with two rapid discharges before they had time move or even think.
Six.
The warning indicator in her helmet's HUD started beeping to inform her that her shotgun had just overheated. She wouldn't be able to fire again for another five seconds. And there were still three pirates within a couple meters of where she was standing.
Seven.
The batarian on her left shot her in the face from point blank, causing the blue aura around her to flicker slightly but not penetrating her shields.
Eight.
Shepard kicked sideways, shattering his knee-cap as she butt-stroked the pirate directly in front of her with her shotgun, splitting his head open.
Nine.
Letting go of the shotgun with her left hand, she grabbed the now-crippled pirate by the throat and aimed the downward stroke of the shotgun at the batarian to her right, hitting him square across the face with a pistol-whipping motion.
Ten.
Augmenting her strength with her biotics, she threw the crippled batarian as hard as she could towards another small group off to the left, knocking them all backwards several meters and successfully entangling them as they tried to pull out their weapons.
Eleven.
Gripping the shotgun with two hands again, she brought it down on the skull of the stunned pirate at her feet, killing him instantly. In her peripheral vision she saw another squad-sized group of batarians raising their weapons and firing as they ran towards her from the right, one of them stopping for a split second to release a couple varren from an iron kennel. The blue aura surrounding her flickered more as the mass effect particles started depleting her shield barrier.
Twelve.
The beeping in her helmet stopped, indicating that her shotgun could fire again. Shepard hit the charging switch on her weapon and dove headfirst over the crate she had just vaulted, twisting her body horizontally in a winding, graceful motion as she fired into the oncoming rush of pirates to her right. The carnage blast caused the heads of two raiders to disappear immediately, and two other batarians to drop their weapons and fall to the ground screaming as they held their faces. Three other pirates managed to squeeze off short bursts, and she felt her shields drain even more as more mass effect particles hit her.
Thirteen.
She landed, rolled, and pulled out a grenade as she took cover behind a crate filled with satchel charges.
Fourteen.
Ducking to avoid the mass effect particles pinging overhead, she primed the grenade and shoved it in between the grating of the crate. Time to go.
Fifteen.
She pulled out another grenade with her left hand, stood, and fired her shotgun right into the open maw of a leaping varren, throwing it backwards as it went into its death throes.
Sixteen.
Another blast straight into the face of the other varren knocked it backwards, lifeless. With her left hand Shepard heaved the grenade towards another set of crates about fifteen meters away, praying that they were filled with something explosive. A batarian fired a poorly aimed burst that grazed her right shoulder.
Seventeen.
Must. Run. She heard the report of Diego's assault rifle set on full automatic and breathed a quick prayer of thanks as she watched three batarians crumple in her peripheral vision. Diego must have finished setting the charges and gotten clear. She pumped her arms harder, trying to put as much distance as possible between her and the transport rigged with charges.
Eighteen.
Faster. Less than twenty meters to the relative safety of the tree line. The other pirates had finally figured out what was happening – or at least that she was not one of them – and were firing at her from multiple positions. She could see the effect on her rapidly depleting shields in her helmet's HUD.
Nineteen.
Ten meters. Diego's assault rifle was still on overkill as he laid down as much covering fire as he could for her. Faster.
Twent-
The shockwave from the explosions lifted her off her feet, spun her around, and threw her almost all the way back into the tree line. She saw her shield indicator go to zero in her HUD right before she had the wind knocked out of her from landing flat on her stomach. She lay motionless on the ground, gasping for air, for almost a full minute before she tried to move again.
Ouch. Note to self: next time allow more time to get out of the blast radius.
Better yet, let's just avoid ever having a "next time."