The caverns proved to be a radically different environment that required the squad to rely heavily on night vision imagery via their visors. They were cramped with formations on both the ceiling nad floor and slowed the squad down as they were forced to get through many area in single-file. Luckily there were no bats or other strange creatures hiding in the depths. Against his better judgement, Magnus decided the best way to keep Atreides and Krysae seperated was to have one take point and the other the rear until they reached a suitable location to make camp. He would have felt better taking the lead himself but though the added responsibility might help Atreides cool off. If they were still bickering later he would alternate the postions since it was the fair thing to do.

As troublesome as Krysae was, he hadn't been given many chances to stand out from the squad and everyone deserved a fair go on a training exercise. He could either prove he was more capable than they all believed or fail miserably and let someone else take the spotlight. That's how the meritocracy worked, only those who demonstrated that they could manage being at the top were allowed to be there. It took great effort and dedication to remain in any single position and even more to rise higher. Magnus only let the thought cross his mind briefly, he was the highest ranked among the squad and his word carried the most weight out there in the jungle. There was no further point to aspire towards for him, even if it was a temporary state of affairs.

To her credit, Atreides did a satisfactory job of leading them out of the darkened caverns and back to the banks of a much more mellow river. She even seemed to enjoy it and had a newfound sense of dignity about her movements. Caestus was beginning to sink in the sky above, signalling the first hours of evening and everyone sighed with relief. They had never walked so much in one day in their lives and even Magnus was feeling a soreness that he was no longer accustomed to.

He noticed that their tiredness was no necessarily a result of muscle fatigue and basic ration bars without much sustenance to them. Naturally used to Invcitus' 31 hour day cycle because it was the world he was born on, he had taken for granted how others managed the adjustment away from the galactic standard 20 hour day. On base and surrounded by artificial light, it was easy to forget that every planet was slightly different in such a regard.

"It's not much further, you've all done a great job today, even with the disruption," Magnus tried some positive feedback to keep them going during the hardest leg of the day. Nobody said anything, they were too focused on staying awake to waste energy.

He heard someone stumble behind him and suspected it was Krysae but it had been Riona instead. Krysae was giving her a hand back up and letting her lean on him a bit. Was it a noble act of helping a damsel in distress or did the kid have an alterior motive? Either way, it was none of his business so Magnus pretended not to see it.

"Sir, what am I supposed to be looking for in a camp site exactly?" Atreides said over the radio in their visors since she had gone too far ahead.

"Something defendable, preferably," he said.

"Roger that. How about a cave?"

"That'd work nicely if it's big enough and only has one entrance to cover."

"I've got just the thing, sir," there was the sound of muffled movement in the background as she changed position. Then in a much quieter voice she whispered, "Except there might be a tiny problem."

"What?"

"It belongs to someone else. Someone really big. I think it might be a mother defending its young, whatever it is."

"Hold your position, Atreides. Do not do anything until we've caught up."

"Um, you might want to hurry then. Because I think she thinks I'm on the menu."

"You heard her. Pick up the pace everyone, weapons drawn but don't fire until ordered."

Adrenaline spurred the squad into action, with their CO in the lead. They jumped down some ledges left behind by the river and struggled to keep up with Magnus who already had his rifle loaded and ready. He wish he had asked for more details about what sort of creature they'd be facing but was certain their sudden arrival would be enough to scare off the majority of the large game in the area. And if not, he had some armour-piercing rounds at the bottom of his pack if they were truly needed. The assault rifles carried by the rest of the squad were mostly carried to scare creatures off and weren't precise or lethal enough to kill something quickly the way a well aimed sniper rifle could.

By the time they reached the small clearing near the cave entrance, Atreides was pinned to a wall of a stone with her shotgun pointing shakily at the strangest creature any of them had ever seen. The creature was only a metre or two away from her, its huge body was tensed up and ready to strike, a snake-like double pronged tail waved furiously behind it. It was brandishing claws while making a strangle shrieking noise with it's long beak, trying to warn the intruder off but not realising that it had her cornered. It took them a minute to realise that the bear-sized animal might have been a wingless bird given the feathers and the talons on its hind legs. Behind the needlike spurs on each of the four limbs were the small feathery bodies of minitature versions of the animal huddling around their mother for safety.

"A chimearus.. didn't think they were anything more than folklore," Magnus said with astonishment as he waved his squad to set up a perimetre to block off its escape.

"Surprise, they're real," Atreides said sardonically. She didn't sound as scared as she looked though her gun still remained unsteady as if she wasn't sure which part to aim for. "We don't have to kill her do we? I mean, she hasn't hurt me. Yet. And they say there's nothing more dangerous than a mother protecting it's child, right? Those scales on her back look really tough. It's going to take more than one shot and the first will piss her off. And guess who's closest to those razor sharp claws. Besides you shouldn't kill a mother in front of her kids, that's just mean."

"Calm down, Atreides, maybe if she doesn't think you're a threat she'll wander off. Or...maybe not, watch out!" Magnus backed off instinctively when the chimearus reared itself on its hind legs. It screeched at Atreides again and showed off its claws as it prepared to leap towards her.

Not taking any chances, he left off the first round from the Valiant at medium range into the back of its neck but the scales prevented the bullet from penetrating deeply. There wasn't time to dig for special ammunition, he tried two more rounds until he was forced to reload and they sucessfully redirected the creature's attention onto himself. As Atreides had predicted, the mother chimaerus was angry and it charged his position forcing the entire squad to scatter.

He heard his squad-mates double-checking their thermal clips, their trigger fingers itching for the order. But if the scales of the chimaerus were resistant to sniper bullets then the Phaestons would need to spend at least a full clip to get through to the vulnerable insides and there weren't enough spare thermal clips to waste on a single animal. They needed something that could hit fast and hard, something like the Eviscerator that Atreides was holding.

"No one fire at it, keep out of range if you can help it. Biotics, try to keep it restrained. Non-biotics, give the little ones some warning shots, we don't have to kill them. Atreides, you're going to have to do the most damage. Aim for her throat, where the feathers are. We'll keep her exposed so you can get the right angle."

"What, why me?"

"Because you brought a shotgun. You all have your orders."

"But I can't kill an innocent creature and take its home. That's not fair."

"We can debate the ethics later, need you to focus Atreides. Only you can bring it down," he jumped out of the way of a wayward swipe from one of the creature's claws and threw a hastily casted warp effect at it. The field hit its mark but wasn't strong enough to do lasting damage. The other biotics weren't having better luck with their powers either and he didn't want to resort to Quintus' unstable singularity. He tried another tact with Atreides who was positioned in the creature's blindspot, "Pretend its not a chimearus at all. Pretend it's someone you really hate and despise and who has it coming to them. This thing wants you dead, it wants everything you've ever cared about dead and nothing can stop it but you."

Three shattering bursts were unleashed into the creature from side-on. Feathers, scales, and purple-tinted blood sprung forth before its massive body toppled over in the most unceremonious fashion. Atreides' gun was still drawn but no longer shaking and she stared at her victim with a blank expression. The rest of the squad cheered for her triumph and went about examining the cave and divying up who got the best spots for their bedrolls. They saved the driest spot for Atreides, unamiously agreeing that she had earned it.

While they were busy setting up a fire and tearing off their armour, Magnus went over to clap Atreides on the shoulder.

"You did good, soldier. Most people don't live to tell a story like that."

"Yeah, I guess," she semed distant, maybe ashamed of what she had done. It was an odd thing for a trained soldier to have to kill something that couldn't shoot back. Her first kill and it wasn't even sentient.

"What did you end up imagining it was? Krysae maybe?" he tried to get her to laugh to break her out of her daze.

"I pretended she was my mother," she said coolly. That wasn't the response he was angling for. She turned around to look at the other squad-mates who were busying themselves with the night's meal and dismissed herself from Magnus' presence. He let her go and tried to ponder what could make someone say that about their own family.

Magnus returned to the camp after refilling his canteen from a stream nearby and found everyone listening attentively to one of Krysae's famous tales. They seemed to have forgiven his earlier outburst in favour of some form of entertainment that could settle their nerves. The disembodied, primal noises in the middle of the night were enough to keep everyone on edge. They needed to calm their minds long enough to get some rest before another early start.

From what Magnus could gather from the snippets of the story that he caught, Krysae was talking about the exploits of his grandfather during the Shanxi occupation. It was a relatively controversial point in turian-human relations that had almost resulted in a full scale war to which many were disappointed. Krysae didn't go into the political side of the story and instead described the dangerous missions of a fighter squadron in its prime. He was certainly proud of his family's legacy and boasted about it to anyone who would indulge him. No wonder he had such a high opinion of himself. He still had a long way to go to fill the same boots as those before him.

The story encouraged others to open about their own families and their childhood mishaps. They were all in high spirits after surviving their first day in the jungle and open to bonding with one another. The stories started off as funny, embarrassing moments and gradually turned more serious in tone as the night wore on. It was a good time to ask personal questions that had been nibbling at them for sometime.

"I still can't figure out how I have two Marcells in my unit," Magnus began since the twins had neglected to go into much detail about their upbringing after both Quintus and Kasamir had been so open about theirs. "Family members usually need special permission to serve in the same legion and are usually denied the right to serve in the same squad. Factor in the rarity of twins and both being biotic, well, there's a lot of odds you two have defied to get here."

"Didn't you mention that your parents serve on the same ship?" Quintus recalled.

"Yes, but that's the navy. Their rules are a little different but they still got special permission," he reminded him.

The twins looked at each other to determine who would answer the question. Lucien spoke first, "It's rather complicated, actually. As you probably noticed, we enlisted when we were of age. Not my idea, by the way. Riona insisted we needed the fresh start. I'm still not sure if it was a great idea. You hear so many stories about the strict rules of the cabals and how controlling they are. I didn't want that kind of life but the life we had before coming here.. let's just say it was a lot worse."

"We didn't know our parents," Riona added tentatively. "Basically, we were raised by what you might call a biotic extremist group that didn't believe in turning over biotics to the cabal or any similar entity. They were a multi-racial group, a bit of everything. They just wanted the best for biotics, or so we thought for many years but as we got older it became apparent they had a more sinister agenda."

"Granted, they had every reason to harbour their suspicions and hatred for non-biotics that wanted to oppress people for being different," Lucien said with the utmost honesty which surprised many of them given the radical view. "Not everything they did was noble but not all of it was bad either. If not for them, we'd have never figured out our mother's fate or which colony we had been born on."

"Our mother was Aerin Marcell and she was a victim of a terrible experiment. Scientists were always trying to find better ways to create biotics, most attempts being completely outlawed for their breach of ethical standards. Our mother was a biotic, we're not sure how she was exposed to eezo, hopefully it was more natural than what happened to her later. Our father, whoever he was, was also a biotic. We don't have all the details and frankly don't want to know what exactly happened. It was some sort of pedigree thing where they tried to control the genomes of fertilised cells with direct eezo exposure. She probably had a lot more children that never took their first breath.

Lucien and I are the only ones that made it through the process successfully and the group that rescued us from that predicament took us in as their own. They taught us how to fight, to defend ourselves and swore we'd get revenge some day. But we never did, we were too busy hiding from the authorities on every world we hid on. We had to fight to eat, to have shelter, to survive. Until one day I had had enough of living in the shadows and convinced Lucien that we needed to do something else."

There was absolute silence as they shared their story, nobody had ever expected to hear something so tragic and wrong. No one deserved to be born of a test tube and to not know their parents at all. The only silver lining was that the twins had each other to rely on during all their hardships and were not completely alone.

"Spirits, I had no idea it was that complicated," Magnus managed to say when the silence became too awkward. The rest nodded in agreement and offered encouraging words about how the Hierarchy would never mistreat them and that they did the right thing to come to the cabal to be trained properly. Riona was grateful for being accepted but Lucien remained doubtful.

That was the cue for everyone to turn in for the night. They drew lots to see what order everyone would take their shift in watch duty. With seven of them, they only had to do an hour each. Magnus offered to go first and he spent much of the hour trying to make sense of what would convince people to disrespect their own kind for scientific gain. No amount of knowledge was worth those means to obtain it.

He turned to wake Atreides up for her turn and saw her staring absently at the cave's ceiling, leaning back on her arms crossed behind her. She looked more relaxed and passive then than he had seen her during the whole trip. He felt guilty for disturbing her.

"Can't sleep?" he inquired softly, trying to not wake the others with the echoes of his voice.

"Knew I'd have to get up soon, not much point in trying," she answered as she moved to get up. He put out a hand to help her up and half-expected her to refuse but she took it and allowed herself to regain proper balance before letting go, "Has it been raining out there? I've got a piercing headache."

"Yeah, a little. I'm not especially tired yet if you don't mind the company," he offered. She didn't mind at all and the two walked quietly to the entrance to keep watch together. They could hear their squad-mates moving in their sleep not too far away and the distant sound of thunder of a passing storm.

"How are you feeling now?"

"Better, thanks."

"You didn't seem too interested in sharing with everyone earlier. If I'm prying, you can tell me to stop but I like to know my squad and where they've come from. I can't quite figure out why you're so.."

"Aggressive?"

"Passionate."

She shrugged but didn't look over at him. There was little light aside from the dimming campfire and he wished he could make out her features better. He wanted to know what she was thinking, why she thought that way, and how he could help her control her temper. What he didn't know was why he had such a keen interest, the other squad-mates had their own weakness to fix as well. Atreides had been a bit of a mystery from the start, something about her was broken and in need of devoted repair.

"I gave the short version, grew up in boarding schools and only had a father. Any more than that and they'd judge me."

"I won't judge you. Whatever you say to me can be kept between us."

"I appreciate that but I've never been open with anyone really. Maybe that's part of the problem. I let the little things build up over time and when they turn into a mountain, I lose myself. Like earlier today, not that Krysae had been wholly innocent. He's been pushing the wrong buttons since day one. But I snapped and I shouldn't have."

"I gave you both warnings and that was the end of that, don't worry about it any more. What about your family though?"

"It's really not worth talking about. Every family has its dark secrets, right?"

He thought about his brother sitting alone in a cell for the first time in weeks, "Yeah."

"As I said, I didn't grow up with a mother. She abandoned my father when I was too young to remember. Didn't want her name associated with someone who had been dishonourably discharged. I don't know exactly what happened, only that he killed one of the men in his squad when they got into a fight. If they hadn't been on duty, the penalty might not have been as harsh. He's never told me what that fight was about."

"Your file doesn't mention any of that, there's no black mark against you personally."

"No, I'm in the clear. It's up to me to regain what my father lost. That sort of pressure has been on me all my life. The pressure to do better, to be respected. I don't know what I want, Dad had a good idea of what he wanted for me and for our future before his depression took root.

He tried his hardest to do the right thing but he was an outcast that society didn't want to see the backside of. And that meant working long hours at jobs that paid very little to cover the cost to put me through school. I barely saw him and when I did, he was sick and barely holding on. But he'd smile when I was around and he'd get better for a little while. If he could afford to keep me at his side, I'm sure he would have. It would have been the best thing for us both.

As it was, I had to get an education and prepare for my own future. They weren't the best schools, most of the other kids were unwanted or poor like me. We were at the very bottom with no chance of ever making it. I didn't get on with the other kids, they had dreams and goals and ambitions that I didn't have and maybe I was jealous of the hope they had despite their lot in life. We fought a lot over basically everything though usually it was pride that ruled us. I didn't care where I ended up or even if I would outlive my father.

You're the first person I've talked to about any of this."

"Then I am honoured to hear it," he met her eyes then as the rain started again.

She laughed for what sounded like the first time, "It's kind of surprising that the rest of the squad hasn't been on my case yet. This is the first time I feel like I might not be a big screw up after all. People are starting to depend on me and look up to me for answers. I don't have any answers but I'm really good at looking like I do. All talk and no walk, some might say. That's not too far from the truth. Trouble seems to find me wherever I go so I've gotten used to expecting it. There's no problem that a shotgun can't solve."

The rain got heavier and silence fell over the pair. Magnus wanted to comfort her but knew she'd bristle at such a gesture. Like him, Atreides preferred to deal with her own problems head on without the help of others. She looked so alone, her green-yellow eyes weren't determined like Viatrix's but afraid. Not afraid of failure by her own admission, afraid to succeed? He could emphathise with that. He had a loving family to support him and was nearing the end of his career while she had not been so blessed and was at the beginning of hers. He wondered if he looked lonely to her eyes, leadership tended to have that effect.

"I can take it from here, Sarge. You should get some sleep," she assured him.

"Thanks, Atreides. If you ever.. well, you know, need to talk before things boil over next time..I'll listen to you," he found himself stumbling over his words, they didn't come out the way he wanted. His suspicions about her had proven correct and he felt like it was his duty to protect her. And if he ever needed someone to talk to, he was sure she'd listen to him too.

"I'll remember that, sir."

He didn't want to be her CO then, he wanted to be her friend. The idea was foreign and new but very appealing. The rain soothed him to sleep and he felt completely at ease.