The first thought that came to mind as Astalia regained her consciousness was of how quiet her surroundings were in contrast to the fighting she experienced before she blacked out. She slowly blinked her eyes open, very aware of the throbbing in her left thigh. Propping herself up with her right arm, she brought her left hand to her head to rub her eyes, stopping when she saw the amount of dried blood on her gauntlet and armoured fingers. She looked at her side and could just about see the large amount of dried purple blood that stained her black armour there too. The wound itself was covered in bandages which wrapped around a lot of her armour as well, it was also significantly less painful now.
"It looks worse than it is." A Turian voice to her right said. Astalia turned to look at him.
"So you are a demolitions expert and a combat medic as well then, Chatti?" She said shakily. He laughed and turned around, scrubbing what looked like Astalias blood off his medical equipment with nothing but a stained purple cloth. His helmet was on the desk behind him, and Astalia could see the red markings across his angular face.
"In this kind of business, it pays to be prepared, does it not? You're welcome by the way, it's going to take forever to clean my equipment." He joked.
"I think that is the most you have ever spoke since I met you, I did not think you had a personality." She replied with a smile which caused Chatti to laugh. "Thanks though." Astalia turned to face him, so she was sitting on the edge of the desk that had been her operating table. "You know washing them would work better?"
"I'd have to agree." He replied over his shoulder. "Unfortunately the Reapers put a stop to pretty much all the utilities we have." Astalia gently stood up off the desk, testing her leg. As she put weight on her left side, she still noticed the throbbing but little more. She leant back against the desk and took a deep breath, analysing her surroundings. The desk she had been lying on was in the middle of the room, with a dozen other desks around it pushed to the walls. The lights were all smashed or flickering, and the only steady source of light was coming from Astalia and Chatti's armour. The walls had posters covering them, and there were books scattered about the room. A thin computer screen was on the wall on the far side of the room, also broken and flickering.
"Where are we?" Astalia asked, squinting to see through the dust particles without her helmet. "Some kind of office?"
"It used to be a school." He said with a flicker of sadness across his face. Astalia felt his pain, but remained silent "Right now
however, it's Checkpoint Artemis."
"Thank the goddess, we made it." She replied with a sigh of relief.
"All thanks to you. That barrier saved our lives. I don't know what made that harvester come at us, there must be a thousand battles happening right now and it came to us... I know they all look the same but could it have been the same one that attacked you and Thrakk when we landed?" Astalia had a bad feeling; in the first firefight she had thought that the harvester had picked her out for some reason.
"I do not know, unfortunately there is no way to tell." Chatti looked at her for a second, before starting to pack his medical equipment away.
"These are as clean as they're going to get right now. How's that leg?" Astalia took a few steps forward, and leant on it. He leg still was still throbbing in pain but it was manageable.
"I think I should be fine." She said.
"Until the medi-gel wears off. We'll have to keep you dosed." Astalia nodded. Further conversation was halted as Gothis' voice came through Chatti's omni tool.
"Chatti, we found something in one of the back rooms. How's Astalia? Can you make it down here?"
"Astalia is awake and on her feet." Chatti replied. "What've you found?"
"A lot of blood." Chatti glanced back at Astalia.
"There is a war going on outside, Gothis."
"It's not Turian or Krogan blood. There's no bodies either. Just get down here."
"Yes sir." Chatti finished packing away the last of his gear and picked up his helmet. "Wonder what's got him so spooked? Come on, let's get down there." It was a short walk to Gothis: he was a few doors down the hallway inside some kind of large meeting room. Astalia checked her own equipment during the walk, she realised that she didn't have her assault rifle. Everything else was accounted for, she must've dropped it when the Banshee attacked her. The room itself was several times bigger than the classroom that Chatti was taking care of Astalia in. It also had a dozen benches and desks which were either flipped on their side or again pushed to the edge of the room. There were light stands scattered about and a pile of ammo and grenade cases at the back of the room.
"Where is everyone?" Astalia asked.
"Dead, probably. That's most likely why there's blood. We just lost contact with them a few days ago." Chatti replied.
"If you payed attention to what I said over the omni tool, you'd know it wasn't Turian or Krogan blood, Chatti!" Gothis said loudly, from the other side of the room. "Now come over here and take a look at this." Chatti hurried over to Gothis, who was crouched behind some overturned desks near the ammo cache. Astalia went over to the two Krogan, who were sitting on some desks towards the right side of the room, they were eating some kind of meat. Thrakk laughed as she wandered over.
"Look who's finally awake!" He said. Nar nodded to her. "Those were some impressive Biotics, blue."
"Thanks." She replied. "A little trick I picked up when I used to do a little mercenary work."
"Ha!" Thrakk exclaimed, as Nar handed him some credits.
"What was that about?" Astalia asked.
"We made a bet, I said you looked like you'd look like you've been mercenary, 'cause of your gear. Nar said you looked like a dancer." Nar glared at Thrakk.
"I mean well, I have once or twice. But that was years ago." A small smile broke out on Nars face, as Thrakk handed him back the money.
"What, like a few hundred or...?" Thrakk asked.
"What? No, I am only 306!" Astalia replied, looking hurt. Both Thrakk and Nar looked confused.
"Sorry." Thrakk laughed. "I just haven't seen anyone able to flare in a while. It's rare even for Matriarchs, I mean, I've never even heard of a Maiden being able to do that."
"Matron."
"Seriously?" Thrakk asked.
"It can happen!" Astalia said indignantly.
"Fair enough, I've never heard of a matron doing it either." Thrakk quickly passed Nar some more credits.
"Another bet?"
"We were bored!" Thrakk chuckled. He looked past Astalia, as Chatti and Gothis came over.
"That is really weird. Was anyone told anything about humans being here?" Chatti asked. Murmurs of no and various head shakings were his reply.
"So it is human blood then?" Thrakk asked.
"Yeah." Chatti said. "Got something weird in it, but it's definitely human." Thrakk looked at Gothis, who quickly passed him a handful of money.
"There's no remains or anything identifiable to tell who they were. Everyone keep an eye out for survivors. Astalia, how's your injury?" Gothis said.
"I'm fine, as long as I do not need to exert that level of biotics again for a while ."
"Fair enough. Exit's that way, everyone fan out and do a final sweep." They went through the door Gothis motioned to, and spread out. Astalia walked into another classroom, pulling out her sidearm. More desks and blood. The desks in this room weren't pushed to the wall, but they were scattered. Almost like they were thrown aside. Astalia looked at the blood smeared walls, and saw that there were a ton of bullet holes. There had been some serious fighting in here. The static from the radio in Astalias omni tool made her jump.
"I think I figured out who the blood belongs to." Chatti's voice crackled through. "I'm in the garage, everyone needs to come and see this." Astalia walked back outside, and turned left, heading towards the coordinates Chatti passed them all. Everyone else was already there, inspecting a huge vehicle parked in the middle of the room. There were several wrecked cars that were trapped under rubble, but this one was practically gleaming.
"Is that a tank?" Astalia asked.
"Hell yeah it is!" Thrakk laughed, almost maniacally. Astalia wasn't in the know as much anymore where military vehicles were concerned, but she knew enough to recognise the tank as a Mako, or a similar variation. It had 3 wheels on each side, and a wicked looking cannon, with a smaller but just as menacing machine gun next to it. But what really drew her attention was the orange symbol that was burned into both sides of the tank.
"Cerberus?" Astalia thought out loud.
"Yup." Chatti's voice came from under the vehicle. "Everything seems to be fine under here."
"Interior looks fine too." Gothis said, climbing out of the tank hatch.
"So... Can I drive?" Thrakk asked.
"No!" Chatti and Gothis said.
"We'll need to be stealthy, I've had a Krogan driver before; half the passengers ended up in therapy afterwards!" Gothis joked. "Chatti will drive." Thrakk looked a bit disheartened by this. "But we'll need a gunner." An evil grin spread across Thrakk's face as he rubbed his hands together.
"Cerberus have had sinister motives lately." Chatti said. "Whatever they want here, if there's any of them still alive we need to be careful, because this mission just became a lot more complicated."
