Arvuna. A nice ocean world. With almost three hundred and fifty million residents in it, the Alliance considers it the biggest success in off-world colonization for the human race. Located in the Asyur System in the Caleston Rift, it was securely nestled near the edge of Alliance and Council space, far enough from the Terminus borders that Raiders were a mere bogeymen parents used to frighten ill-behaved children.
But, like all those who believe themselves safe on the precipice of disaster, that was hardly the case.
"All units of Hunter Company," Commander Henderson yelled into his headset as another mortar shell exploded not too far from his and Nora's position, "dig. Be sure and keep the enemy at bay until Bravo Company can evacuate the civilians! Do not let them near the evac zone!"
Corporal Nora Shepard hefted her CO's arm over her shoulders and dragged him into another room of an office building that had been abandoned not long before. He had taken some shrapnel from the first round of mortars from the first counter-attack after they had initially repulsed the raiders in the leg.
Nora placed him on a desk and once she got a better look at the leg, her stomach felt queasy. While standard issue Alliance armor was tough, the batarians had switched to using armor piercing rounds in their munitions. The wound was ugly. Even as she quickly slathered on the medi-gel and started to bandage the wound, she had a feeling it was going to be a while before her CO would walk again.
"How bad is it, Corporal?" he asked as he grit his teeth in pain.
"Define 'bad', sir?" she said as she started to wrap the medi-gel bands around the cloth to keep it steadied and stop the bleeding.
"Bad as in, 'it'll pass like a kidney stone' or bad like 'were fucking boned where we stand'?" he said as his breathing started to grow faster.
Of course, Nora thought morosely, the shards in the mortars could have had been dipped some kind of toxin.
Bastards.
"Boned, sir," she said as she set the last of the bands. Thankfully, the anti-toxins in the medi-gel would counteract the poison in time, however, that was something they did not have in abundance.
"Oh well," he said with a grumble, "that's how it goes, Corporal."
She activated her omni-tool to register the locations of the rest of the squad. They seemed to be holding their own. They were far enough from the front that she could get Henderson back to the evac zone and he could get help.
"Hold on, sir. We're getting you out of here," she before she threw his entire body over her larger shoulders. The sounds of additional explosions caused her balance to waver against the wall. When the Commadner's helmet collided with the wall, he barked out in pain.
"The hell are you doing, Shepard?" he shouted as she ran out of the building and into another alley way.
"Getting you to the evac zone!" she said back as three more mortars exploded in the neighboring block. Rodriguez and Hamilton where there. She grit her teeth and accelerated as she heard the whistle of more weapons followed her.
There were explosions, followed by more shrapnel landing around her. Thankfully, she had enough of a lead that the metal shards landed against her back harmlessly.
"Sir, what do we do while you're at evac?" she asked as she saw the more heavily defended heart of the resistance.
"Start informing the rest of the squad to switch to emergency channel four. The moment we know an approximate number of the raiders, we move. If there's too many, we pull back to the evac point. If there's enough for us to handle, have the rest of the squad hunker in down and dig in until we can get reinforcements to arrive."
"And if the raiders are using scramblers?" she asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.
"Good chance they are. And if they are, then, tell the troops we got a long wait before reinforcements arrive," he said somberly.
She said nothing as she passed by several more soldiers and entered the evacuation area that was at the docks at the other side of the colony. Most of the civilians had gotten to shelters strong enough to outlast the assault.
Despite the fact that one of the moderately sized colonies on the planet was under attack, the Batarians thought they'd have enough time to attack, take a few ship loads of slaves and get out of system before reinforcements stopped them.
Too bad for them, Nora had no intention of letting them get away with it.
"Captain, what's the situation?" she said to a member of the M*A*S*H unit that were also stationed with her squad.
"Well, the raiders haven't hit this far into the colony, and with things being as they are, we'll be able to hold out until help arrives. If it does," the lanky doctor said.
"It will. I'm heading back out there to rally the troops. They won't reach here," Nora said with a determined face.
Another artillery shell exploded a short distance away from the camp. Both turned to the source, aware that the Batarians were getting closer.
"I hope so," the doctor said as Nora got her gear and ran back out to carry orders from Commander Henderson to the remainder of the troops.
Of course, while the remainder of the troops got the orders, any other sort of communication was garbled to the point where they would have to assume help was not going to come immediately. The best they could get was a return transmission from one of the military outposts in the neighboring system and it would take them a day, at the least to get there.
While the mortar barrage had ended a long fifteen minutes ago, it only told her that the raiders were moving in. She could only hope that the rest of her unit was holding their own.
With the ruined infrastructure of the colony being as it was, Nora found herself remembering her days back in OLA. Sure enough, the building construction was highly reminiscent of the construction of the abandoned buildings she often hid in. The sound of kicked down doors brought her attention back to the realization that she was separated from the rest of her unit.
Perhaps it was for the best as she leaped to the ceiling and pulled herself into an air vent large enough for her to crawl inside. Sure enough, a trio of raiders, two soldiers and a sentinel slowly walked through the office, unaware she was watching them all.
Normally, she would have thought this easy, as she had many occasions in the past to jump and attack members of other gangs. However, these weren't sand droppings with only rags and blunt instruments. These were trained soldiers. Not to mention they had shields and most likely were capable of fighting CQC. She had to take them out quickly, quietly, and as safely as she could.
Immediately, Maleia's words echoed in the back of her head.
If you charge head on an enemy that outnumbers you, you deserve to die. If you can weaken them in anyway, whether it's through their numbers, equipment, or morale, then you're one step closer to beating them.
She pulled out her Striker IV pistol and concentrated on the dark energy that started to coalesce around her body. It was a trick that Maleia had taught her and her alone, since she was meant to be an offensive biotic.
Singularities are always unstable. You are, for all intents and purposes, creating a small black hole that won't last long. So, when you toss a biotic warp into it, it causes a premature and very violent, dissipation of the energy used to create it. It's called a detonation or a 'big boom' for those of you who like smaller words.
"Bitch," she mouthed as she gathered the dark energy in her right hand to summon a singularity in her right hand and the remainder to her other hand. If she was right, it would take out their shields and leave them vulnerable to her pistol and combat knife.
When they stopped talking and were about to move forward, she tossed the singularity with one hand, and a warp immediately after. No sooner did the former appear and disorient the soldiers, the latter immediately hit it and sent all three flying. Immediately, she jumped through the vent, took aim at one of the soldiers and shot him in the head three times before he could recover. She did the same with the second, but dove to the side as the sentinel stood up and shot at her with his rifle.
Her index finger got sore as she yanked at the trigger to take down the batarian's shields before he had a chance to recover. Immediately, she followed up her attack with a biotic throw. The instant his rifle was pointed at her, the kinetic attack tossed him against the wall.
She got to a better position and continued to pull the trigger, but found her weapon had overheated. He needed to be taken out now, before he could alert the other raiders. She dashed towards him, drew her combat knife was about to jab it into his skull when one of his hands had caught her wrist.
With her free hand, she caught his jaw to keep his mouth shut as they fought one another for dominance. However, the instant she saw his omni-tool light up, she knew she had seriously erred. A powerful electrical shock took her off balance as the batarian used his boot to shove her off of him and onto the ground.
Her barriers were gone. She was vulnerable. Unless she took over and let them regenerate, she was dead where she stood. Her heart beating madly, she quickly dove back to her gun in hopes that her protection would return before he could retrieve his own weapon. The instant she got her weapon, she whirled it around only to fall back again when her barriers were shattered once more.
She shot again, aiming at where barriers and shields were most weakest, the head. Immediately, she tossed another biotic throw at the batarian, but it carried something along with it. Her combat knife, spinning at incredible speeds, tore through the batarian's armor and, subsequently, left a noticeable hole in his chest. The knife, along with several pieces of tissue from the internal organs from the batarian, dug into the wall.
With little time to waste, she ran over to her knife, pulled it out of the wall and after wiping the residue of the raider off of it, returned it to its hilt in the small of her back. She then blinked and realized what a find she had. Sentinels were often ranked higher and if her guess was right, then perhaps she knew how to turn this raid around into her favor.
She removed the omni-tool from the dead sentinel's wrist and activated her own in tandem with his. While her hacking skills were not the greatest, it turned out these raiders never assumed the worst of their intel falling into enemy hands.
Immediately, she downloaded the IDs and locations of the rest of the raider's forces in the colony. Turns out that they were meant as a distraction for something bigger. Well, it didn't matter. She immediately input the information to the rest of her squad, using the encryption that most Alliance soldiers are given, aware that they now had the upper hand.
Now, it was time to hunt. However, once again Maleia's instruction echoed in the back of her mind.
Never relish a kill in battle. Just kill your enemy and move on. Otherwise, it turns you into the same shit-spewing, brainless thugs that comprise most of the mercs and raiders in the galaxy. And you are merely one-step away from becoming that.
As right as she was, she couldn't help but smirk as she located the nearest two mercs that were coming up to check on their allies. She also noticed that one of the dead soldiers carried a few proximity mines. Ready to have their Smart-ID protocols changed and used against the raiders.
She was going to enjoy this.
With her head against the wall of the shuttle leaving orbit with the rest of her squad, most were chattering excitedly about how fortunate they were to have emerged victorious. The raiders were routed, vital info was obtained about an upcoming raid, and best of all, Nora had been promoted to Service Chief for her quick thinking and timely acquisition of said intelligence.
"Attention all members of Hunter Company," Rear Admiral Mikailovich's voice came over the comm, "once you're all patched up, I'm afraid that you're going to be immediately deployed again. We've got a situation going on and every available soldier is being requested to assist."
"What's going on, Captain?" Commander Henderson asked from the pilot's seat.
"Elyisum's under attack."