44 hours, 2 minutes and 37 seconds since the red wave of The Crucible washed over the galaxy and killed all synthetic life.
She hated this, the waiting before deployment thought Kala. She hated sitting it the cramp, dark, noisy and cold insides of a gunship, waiting for it to land. They hardly had a day's rest before they were on another mission, but that's how been throughout this war. Mission after mission, injury after injury, rush after rush, it all got to you eventually. She figured after biggest battle of all time was fought she could get some rest. She thought her and fellow huntress could definitely use some rest, well all two of them.
She could still remember them fighting so vividly, the death of each of her squad mates. But yet they died and the young-blood lived. She stared at youngest in her squad, who was pretending not to notice her glaring by look at something else. Why did she live when her closest friends had not. She had only been redeployed into her squad right before the Battle of Earth and could not be more than two hundred years old. She did not even have the markings of a full huntress. If things were normal she would be still be training to master her biotics at their temple, but things were not normal. So instead they threw children into battle, hoping they take bullet for the real warriors.
Kala closed her eyes briefly and was back at that battle. Her squad was hunkered down in some foxhole. Two members of the original ten were down. Kala look to her left to see her closest friend, Ursila. They met when they were nothing but children. They always were playing games like Justicar and Criminal and other games with fighting. They join the order of huntresses for their colony together and train for centuries together. But here it was, like in slow motion. Ursila tried to fire her gun at husk about to leap on her, to only hear the sound of clicking. Next, before Kala can shoot the husk, the husk lands on Ursila, pinning her to the ground. It grabs her head with those long talons and begins trying to pull it off her shoulders, while pounding it into the ground. The husk the push it thumbs into her eyes, squishing them, making her scream a scream that could be heard above all the gunshots and explosions. Then it succeeds in the task it sent out to do, with a loud crack and disgusting sound flesh tearing, her head comes free. With anger now guiding every thought in her being, She lift the husk into the air with her biotics and slammed into the ground over and over again, until it just a pile of flesh and metal.
She did not deserve to die on that goddess forsaken world the humans called home. It was disgusting and depressing with its grey skies and sickly smelling air. No wonder the humans expanded so fast she thought, they were trying to escape that god forsaken rock they evolved from.
Kala looked to their squad leader, for some comforting words or anything to cure this distress she felt but was only given the calm and stoic gaze of their leader. Theea was almost old enough to be a matriarch but she always stayed and taught and sometimes led the huntress of her temple. It was strange to see her fight. She seemed always in control and always unfazed no matter the enemy. Kala could never understand how she could stay so calm all the time. Even when that heavily modified Reverent machine gun named "Precious" ran out of ammo and she was using it as a club, she still had to calm look and aura about here. Kala guess that's what made her such a good leader. She never let things affect her or her performance. A bright exemplar on what they should all strive to.
But even her normally calm presence was doing nothing for Kala, so she looked at their extra company. An asari doctor whose name escaped Kala at the moment. They were being sent by High Command to survey the Citadel Presidium and look for survivors. That's what all the asari huntresses and commandos were doing. Sense there was nothing left to kill, command thought they be good search and rescue. However their squad medic died, so they got this little doctor who looked like she barely got out of school. Very unlikely she had any field experience thought Kala.
"ETA in one minute." blurted the pilot out of the speakers. Her voice had a shake to it, suggesting she saw something unsettling thought Kala.
Theea looked to and gave them a glance that asked if they were ready. Kala and the young-blood both nodded they were ready but the doctor gave them a strange and confused look, not knowing the huntresses body language.
"I was asking my squad mates if they were ready, we often use signs and looks to communicate so not to waste time" Theea addressing the doctor's bewilder look.
Before the doctor could respond to Theea, there was a rumble throughout the gunship. They had landed. As the gunships back hatch open with a hiss, a foul aroma filled the asari's nostrils. As they poured themselves out of the gunship, they immediately stop at the sigh before them. The Presidium was not how they remember it last. Instead of normal bright light were instead replaced with a low red glow. The streets and walkways were covered in bodies, mostly human; a consistent layer of death and decay two to four feet thick. The only places that were cleared of dead were small lanes that keepers stayed in. However even the keepers were motionless, as if frozen in time of what they were doing. Then the once proud lakes of the Presidium had no water, instead replaced with the bloated bodies that poured over the edges of the lake.
Kala begin to gag at the smell of so many dead. She forced all her concentration and focus she had built up with long years of training to repress her gag reflex. However after a moment she was able to calm her body and focus at the task at hand. Although as she looked at these piles of death, she could not help but think nothing could be alive here. As she looked at the rest of her team she saw that the doctor had far less control over her body then she did. The doctor was on her hands and knees, letting all the material in her stomach exit her system. Theea went to aid of the doctor while the young-blood and Kala went out to try figure out where exactly they were on the Presidium.
Kala looked around but so little seemed familiar with the Reapers "adjustments", all seem so the same. It was just pile after pile after floor of dead. Although one shape stood out amongst the gloom the place carried. The mass relay statue at the base of the Council tower told her that they were near the Human, Volus and Elcor embassy. It also told her that those large pieces of rubble from the Council tower were lying on top of the Krogan statue. Kala smiled a little when she thought about how the Krogan would react to fact their statue had been smashed.
Kala turned around to see the doctor had finally recovered from the experience and activating some sort of scanner on her omni-tool. Probably some bio-metric scanner or something like that Kala guessed.
"Let's check out the embassy" Theea shouted while pointing to the embassy.
However the search of the embassy proved fruitless as all they saw was more dead. Kala start to feel really uncomfortable feeling. She tried carefully to walk over the dead without desecrating the corpse. Though whenever she looked down there would be a face of a human, asari or some other species petrified in screaming terror with their eyes rolled over. The gaze of the corpse was soul crushing to say the least.
They left the embassy to go check out C-sec but the elevator was jammed with this goo that none of them want know what it was made of. So the proceed to the consorts old establishment. They found it was just crammed with bodies as well. Kala began to wonder how anyone was going to identify all these corpses.
Then they began to walk towards the emporium when the doctor's omni-tool started to beep. They all stared stun at the machine as they had been silent most way through this search.
"It would seem that someone requires are aid wouldn't doctor. Where is it coming from" whispered Theea into the doctor's ear.
The doctor stumbled and fiddled with her omni-tool as if she has no idea what to do. It was moments before she finally replied "It seems to coming from that rumble by where the Krogan statue should be."
Kala looked at the lake of dead bodies surrounding the rubble and could not help but start gag again. Although not as bad as when they originally arrived, it still took a few seconds to regain her composure. Kala looked to Theea for how to best approach the rubble and Theea started to use her biotics to levitate to the rubble. The other huntress followed her example, but this left the doctor unsure what to do as her own biotic abilities never had advanced the most basic levels. Upon realizing who they left behind, Theea went back and brought here to the rubble. They all stood on one large slab the use to be a part of the tower main wall. The beeping got louder. They began then to remove the piece of debris with their biotics. Slowly and carefully moving each piece way from the original site, stopping every once in a while to look at the other gunship bringing down other search crew across the Citadel. They eventually got to the Krogan statue underneath. It was knocked over on its front but beside that, it had weather the storm quite well. But more importantly what was on its hump, a man. A man with N7 branded on his armor.
Kala stood next to this man to admire the amount of punishment he had taken. It was obvious he was in a bad state. He had minor cuts and lacerations across his body. His right foot and shin were all but gone. However she could not help but study his face. He had a military hair cut of black hair and the starting of a beard. His skin was a very pale. He had high cheek bones and heavy laugh lines. His facial structure was more lean and thin. His chin was also small. He had dark circles under his eyes. And under his eye lids there was a bright red light like that of a fire in a forge. All across his face where there were cuts, there was that red light. The red light circled around his face and made it look like you could pull his face off. Kala found it disturbing. She always thought human males were repulsive but this man face gave her goose bumps.
As the doctor rush to his side to stabilize him when Kala asked "How likely is he going to make it?"
"Not likely if you keep distracting me" the doctor barked back.
Kala weigh the decision in her head. In her particular order of huntress, it's a common practice to mind meld with those near death so not lose their battle experiences. But here this man was not part of her order but if he is who she thinks it is it would be a travesty to let this man mastery of war die with him. Her fellow sister would not stop her and doctor would be powerless. Even if he lived would he even know she had done it? Unlikely she thought.
She slowly removed her gloves and kneeled before and started the meld. A wave of tiredness and pain washed over her. She saw men and woman die left and right of her as they rushed a bunker full of batarians. A single man was at head of this charge. The next image was that same man with a flamethrower setting ablaze the batarians in bunkers. Their flesh blistered and cracked and finally melted off their bones. Their screams filled the room but man kept an expressionless face as he burned them alive. She saw countless more die by his hands. Men, women, alien or human, nothing seemed free of his wrath. But there was place in this man's soul not devoted to the death. She saw that he was also a good friend to a few and he defended them ravenously. However there was something else, something recent. There was a source of power greater than that of rage or valor. It was Love, a deep love for someone that fouled his muscles for war. It became too much for Kala and she released him. Kala stumbled and fell on her rump as she let go. She was sweating profusely and shaking.
"What were you thinking, that could have possibly but him in a permanent coma, mind melding with him in state like this." shouted the doctor.
"She was doing what was expected of her. Huntresses from our order are told not let lessons learned by others be wasted. What would of happen if died right here. No one would be able to learn from him and learn how he became such a great warrior. We could only be able to speculate why. If she had not done it, I would. Now tell me Kala, how was it."
Kala could not respond as the experience and emotion in his mind were too intense to properly convey.
"Well then doctor, I suggest you speedy up his recovery. The galaxy I am sure will want to meet its savior" said Theea with a smirk.