York Square, Benning

Day 3, 0310

The battle was intense – quite possibly the most intense firefight Captain Murphy had ever been a part of. The two marines held fast, rattling off shots in a near-constant barrage, and left the Cerberus platoon with massive casualties – white and gold-armoured bodies were littering the street and the square, but still they came, apparent dozens of them pouring in through their little choke point.

Once or twice, a rifle shot would crash against his shields, or a sniper's round would force him to duck his head beneath cover, but for the most part, Cerberus didn't get a chance to fire – they merely made a mad scramble out of the street, trying to find some non-existent cover before they were mown down by the two dogged marines.

As he reloaded for what felt like the hundredth time, the captain even had time to glance upwards and check on Andersen – the engineer was hugging the tower tightly with his legs, hovering over the bare wiring and core exposed beneath the maintenance panel, and using both hands to work with his omni-tool. Now and then a stray shot would clatter off the steel frame of the tower, but the engineer had been lucky so far, and was working as if undisturbed by the fierce battle just feet below him.

Cole took another hit, a round bouncing harmlessly off his shields, and dropped down to reload. Murphy sprang up, squeezed the trigger and watching as molten death sprayed outwards – the burst killed at least four of the troopers running towards them, and he dropped again, reaching for a thermal clip...

...and there were none. He swore, loudly, and the concerned look on Cole's face told him he too was down to his last clip. Resignedly, the captain grabbed his sniper rifle – it wasn't ideal, it was anything but rapid fire, but it would have to do. The first shot decapitated an approaching Nemesis, he slid back the bolt, reloading the rifle, and fired a second shot, causing a sprinting trooper to stumble and fall dead, killed in mid-pace.

To his left, Cole had drawn his pistol - both men were getting desperate. Sensing this, Cerberus pushed forward through the darkness – their troopers were actually getting shots in now, and one or two were sending rounds up at Andersen, sparks lighting up the side of the tower. Murphy heard the engineer's shield crackle as it fought off bullets, and brought the offending trooper down with a shot through the heart. The tide, however, was most definitely turning...

Cole rocked back on his feet, and lurched forwards as he hurled a grenade out over the battlefield – it exploded in a mess of shrapnel and churned concrete, killing three troopers. Murphy did the same, tossing one of his sticky grenades at an approaching enemy's head. It stuck fast, and the man clawed at his helmet for a few moments before it went off, obliterating the top half of his body and killing the man next to him.

The marines only had so many grenades, though, and like their bullets, they were quickly running out. Desperately, Murphy stabbed out with his omni-tool, using a basic cryo program he'd been given in training to freeze a trooper solid. He fell face-down, and shattered on the concrete.

"Andersen!" he roared, as he fired another shot and quickly tried to reload. "Tell me it's almost done!"

"Thirty seconds!" the engineer roared back.

Murphy had only turned his head for a second to check on Andersen. As he looked back, however, his stomach lurched at the sight of Cole, standing up to fire only to take a bullet to the gut. He grunted, slipped backwards, and was already beginning to cough up blood as he hit the ground.

"Cole!" the captain screamed – this had to be a bad dream, it just had to be, but his brain was telling him this was indeed reality. He shuffled over, grabbing Cole's pistol and firing it one-handed, as he pressed his other hand to the marine's stomach, trying to stop the bleeding. Cole was already going pale, however, and a moment later, the pistol ran empty. Murphy swore, very loudly.

"Captain!" Andersen yelled, from above. "Catch!"

Murphy glanced upwards, and saw a small object plunging down towards him. The gun clattered onto the floor at his side, and he quickly grabbed it – it was a finicky quarian pistol, but it was still a pistol, and it was still loaded.

He took aim, and killed the nearest three troopers in quick succession. Scanning the battlefield, he saw about half a dozen shooters still taking aim at their position – his muscles, soaked with adrenaline and fury, were making him fight back, even as his brain began to consider just giving up and lying down in the dust to die.

"Murphy!" came the call, from above his head. "It's done! Send the message, now!"

Relief – or what little of it he could muster – sprang through the captain's mind. He hunched low beneath cover, tapped away at his omni-tool, and began to speak aloud over the radio. If Anderson's virus had worked, then this would now being broadcast through every N7's radio, whether they liked it or not.

"All units, this is Captain Murphy! Blackout's over, folks, now get the hell back to the LZ, we're getting out of here!" He punctuated the sentence by shooting one of the troopers square between the eyes, as he tried to sneak up to the barricade. "On the double, soldiers!"

With that, the radio descended into static again, and Murphy set his mind back to the battlefield. Peering over the barricade, he spotted just five troopers arrayed across the plaza – they were quickly reduced to three as Andersen, still hanging off the tower, tore into two of them with another fireball from his omni-tool.

Murphy span out of cover, shot one trooper to the ground with a couple of rounds to the chest, then used his last round to headshot a second. That just left one... As it happened, that one was sprinting towards his cover, drawing a pistol, taking aim...

...and being decapitated. A deafening bang ran through the plaza, as a single round passed through the man's skull and carried on, clattering against the captain's barricade. The body dropped in slow-motion, collapsing just feet from Murphy, and causing a conspicuous silence to fall over their surroundings.

"Sniper," Murphy observed, weakly. He looked down at his left hand, still soaked in blood. Beneath it, Cole had gone white, and stiff. Wearily, he slumped down against the barricade, dropping Andersen's pistol and shutting Cole's eyes for good. He was sick of it all. Sick of the death, sick of the chaos... One part of his brain was asking who the hell the sniper was, but another was asking why he'd taken so long to come and help...

He looked up towards the office buildings lining the edge of the plaza, and sure enough, a figure was visible in one of the ground floor windows. As Murphy watched on, shattered, the sniper disappeared, then emerged from the building's doorway, followed by another. As the two black-armoured figures approached, they became more and more familiar, until Murphy wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry, and a sort of reluctant energy flooded through his veins.

"Captain," Tyco saluted, rifle hanging limply from one hand.

"Soldier," Murphy coughed. "You look like shit."

"Thanks, boss..."

He had a point, though... Tyco and his companion Vanyali both looked to be in a bad way. Tyco was gaunt, slightly bloody, and looked exhausted, not to mention the tell-tale dilation in his pupils that told the captain he was running on stims to stay conscious. Vanyali looked slightly more rested, but her armour was far more battered, and more obviously, her arm was in a messy sling.

"We done here, Andersen?" Murphy called.

"Almost!" the engineer shouted back. "One more thing to do!"

"What's that?"

"This tower wasn't deployed to keep us in the dark..." Andersen murmured, apparently beginning a long-winded explanation.

"What?" Murphy and Tyco echoed, in unison.

"It wasn't," he repeated, over his shoulder. "Or else it would have been activated before we arrived. We just happened to stumble across it."

"So who was it targeting?" the captain askedd.

"The resistance," the engineer replied, simply. "After we leave, they'll still be here, and this thing'll keep them isolated... But if I can get the current right..."

The three soldiers on the ground watched, incredulously, as Andersen's omni-tool was consumed by flames – a thick coat of plasma was surrounding it, burning fiercely and brightly. After a moment's indecision, the engineer plunged it through the open hatch and deep into the guts of the tower. Thick plumes of black smoke began to pour out, and sparks stung at Andersen's face before he finally leapt away, landing hard on the concrete.

Even as Murphy rushed over to check if the engineer was alright, the tower was sparking viciously, and in a single furious blast, the top and bottom halves of the structure were separated, with the upper section toppling away across the plaza – thankfully not on top of the marines' heads.

"Job done," Andersen muttered, as Murphy pulled him to his feet. A bruise was spreading over his face where he'd hit the ground, but otherwise, he seemed to be fine. "Now let's get the hell out of here."

"Agreed," Tyco nodded, speaking in a business-like tone. "That street you came down? It runs all the way back to the LZ. I'll cover you from the rooftops – take Vanyali while you're at it, she can't climb with a broken arm."

Vanyali looked like she was about to protest, but decided against it. With a collective nod and a last, sad look back at the three dead marines amidst the dozens of dead Cerberus troopers, the four of them set off into the night. Already, gunfire was breaking out in the distance, and the captain knew Yui's squad couldn't hold the escape route open forever...