I don't own the Mass Effect.

Operation: Verdun IV

Date: 11-02-2183

Location: Capital Front, Redcliffe, Feralda System, Northern Terminus

I leaned over the battered holotable, reaching out to tap an icon. "We need support here, have the mortar batteries commence a box barrage of sector sixty-one."

"Reyja'krem." The Batarian officer on my right bowed his head, his omni-tool already flashing as he transmitted the order to the light artillery working to support the attack.

"And tell Captain ul Vriy to get his reserve formation moving." Colonel Nara ul Thui shook her head from her spot across the table from me. "If he can't silence those nests this entire attack is going got fall apart before we even get Second Company moving."

The Colonel was... an odd little woman, especially for a Batarian military commander. For one, she was only five-seven, which was tiny by Batarian standards. For another, she was a lowborn, a former teacher from the Scientist Caste of all things, who'd managed to climb the ranks on her own merits. She, like her subordinates around us, was in armor rather than a uniform, though like everyone's it was now the color of dry dirt rather than the original off-white. Her helmet was on the holotable beside her, within easy grabbing range, revealing a round, almost cute face the same teal color that Nynsi's was.

She was also my current commanding officer, by Kaste's orders.

I'd protested it strenuously, and not at all politely, but at the end of the day the old Turian had had a fucking point. Three weeks wasn't enough to heal my damaged ankle, or the deep bone bruises on my ribcage. Especially since I'd been constantly working or standing time in the support trench's fire-steps rather than taking it easy and trying to recover. I could move around all right, and fire from a standing position, but I needed a lot of fucking pain killers to manage just that much. Even if I had gone with the Blades on our assigned mission, I'd have been a supporting gun at best. A vulnerable, easily wounded one at worst.

So instead of being out engaged in the fighting, I was seconded to the 54th Xenthan, a second-line unit on the near-right flank. My official role was somewhat nebulous. Officially I was to advise and support ul Thui, given that her second in command had gotten hit by a sniper the week prior. Unofficially she had more or less told everyone to treat me as if I was her second in command.

The fun of being a bloody Reyja'krem assigned to a Batarian-majority regiment. But at least the Colonel was attractive.

I stared blankly at nothing, and then rubbed furiously at my face as my active brain realized what I'd just thought.

"Reyja'krem?" She asked, all four eyes narrowing. "Is something wrong?"

"No." My head shook a little, "Stray thoughts is all. How's the primary assault going?"

Her lips pressed into a thin line. "It is proceeding."

"That well?" I grunted, exhaling a heavy breath.

Nara glanced around around at her subordinates rather pointedly, then stepped back and away from the holotable. Grunting, I quickly shifted around it, dodging the other officers crammed into the underground command post, and followed her into a corner free of both equipment and people.

"They've reached marker five." She kept her voice low, to avoid demoralizing everyone else, her head carefully held in a respectfully neutral position. "Only in one sector."

I had to bite my tongue to stop from wincing. "They were supposed to be at marker ten by now."

"Yes." A hiss of breath escaped between her teeth, a brief display of nerves that she quickly controlled. "Enemy counter-battery fire is keeping the primary batteries out of the fight, and the plan relied heavily on the flowing barrage to keep overland reinforcements at bay."

"Shit." Air whistled between my own teeth in irritation. "What about the tunnels?"

"Your team and the other mercenaries have closed seven of them. I have no updates on any casualties," She added the second bit before I could ask, "I would have told you."

"Thanks." I nodded to the left in thanks, then turned my torso to glance back at the holo-table. "You think we need to press harder?"

"I think we're about to receive orders to that effect regardless of what I think." The Colonel's upper eyes flicked to meet mine, while her lower set glanced at the table I'd just looked at. "If we commit our own artillery we can send Fourth company across the lines on our right side to expand the engagement."

I pursed my lips and thought furiously. It had been a while since I'd had to plan an engagement larger than a squad level fight, a very long while in fact, and I was still trying to shake some of the rust off. That I'd never done anything on this scale before wasn't helping. Directing entire companies of soldiers around wasn't the same thing as managing the Shaaryak security forces. "That commits three of the five companies, leaves only the Second as a realistic reserve. They can't cover the entire line if we extended it."

While the Fifth company was a company of soldiers, they were by and large the logistical and support detachment for the regiment. Cooks, engineers, mechanics, medics, that kind of thing. They were all veteran soldiers at this point, but the fact of the matter was they were more valuable supporting everyone else rather than standing on the line. Or worse, joining the attack.

"Committing the Fourth to the existing attack won't do anything besides supply more men to be torn apart by the sandstorm." She pointed out.

"Fair point." I acknowledged quietly. "Do we push the Fifth onto the line?"

"Yes." Nara started moving towards the table again, and I fell into place on her left. "Place them on the right to take the Fourth's position, it will anchor our lines with-"

She didn't get a chance to finish the words before the walls abruptly shuddered around us, dirt falling from the ceiling, and the freaking ground bucked as though an earthquake had just struck. I grabbed at the Colonel, keeping her upright, then almost snarled in pain when she staggered into my left side when another heavy blast struck nearby.

Shoving my pain aside, I shouted over the sudden cries of alarm and confusion. "Sitrep! Now!"

As usual, the sound of someone who knew what they were doing, or at least was pretending to, was enough to restore some level of order. The communications officer replied even as he yanked his helmet over his head. "First and Third Companies both report heavy-counter attacks! Captain Vriy is consolidating their positions!"

Another staff officer shouted, his later words cutting over the prior's report. "The 70th is reporting a heavy advance on their front!"

The Colonel and I had reached the table around then, grabbing our own headgear from where it was resting on the holographic displays and pulling them on even as another heavy artillery strike nearly sent us to the floor.

"The 70th has no artillery!" I swore, "It was transferred to support the main attack!"

"Direct Fifth company to their reserve lines!" Nara barked the order, "Inform Colonel Nial'za that I am dispatching them!"

"Tell Vriy to fuck consolidation!" I snapped at the other man, my mind already whirling back to the other problem. "If the 70th is getting hit his entire right flank is fucking open! They need to pull back before the enemy sets up to cut them apart while they're on the surface!"

Both men began repeating the orders, having to shout them as artillery continued to crash above our position. On my left, the Colonel grabbed onto the table, staring at it through her helmet. "Shit. The 15th is getting hit too."

I glanced at the left side of our lines, the regiment on that side flickering as its own officers translated their own problems into the tactical network. Enemy markings began appearing, but it wasn't the heavy rush occurring on the right. In strength, but... shit. Even as I watched several markers updated again, showing where heavy machine guns were suddenly being reported. They must have hauled them with, out into shell craters, and were using them to pin down our comrades on that side.

Keeping their own attack's flank clear.

"They were fucking waiting for us to attack them." I all but snarled as the wave hit the beach. "That's why the haven't launched any raids in the last couple of weeks. They were saving up the reserves to blunt our attack, then hit us back at the same time."

And we were just the unlucky sector targeted... or they'd used their tunnels to shift their people around, aiming to hit us right where we were launching a spoiling attack, where we would be the least prepared to withstand a heavy blow.

"Irrelevant." The Colonel snapped. "Focus on the now Reyja'krem!"

"Right." I shook my head. Dammit. I couldn't get fucking distracted. "We need to cover the retreat. Fourth could swing onto the right, Second on the left."

"That leaves no one in the trench-line." She growled, then shook herself. "Which won't matter if we lose two of our companies. Send the orders. Direct our artillery to do everything they can to support the retreat, give Captain Vriy local command of the battery. And shift the mortars to cover the right flank."

The orders were again relayed, and then we were stuck becoming little more than observers who occasionally snapped top-level decisions. Which was about as shitty as I remembered it being, back when I'd been stuck in Nynsi's mansion and been forced to watch as other people conducted the missions I'd helped plan. I might not have actively enjoyed being out there with my life on the line, but it still felt... wrong to be here instead of out there.

We snapped off a report to Kaste, our own probably joining other panicked reports flooding into his own headquarters bunker. His own response was short, and expected: Hold the line at all costs.

Not that we really had a choice. Nearly all of the reserves had been committed to allow for the main thrust, and the remainder had been dispersed to support the dozen other spoiling attacks. Our own hadn't been assigned any first-rate units in such a fashion, there just weren't enough of them to go around. Especially given that we were attacking a numerically superior foe, Kaste had needed everyone he could to maximize the chance of success for his attack.

But it left us defending a static position with nothing behind us but a few kilometers of open savannah before it dried out to a desert. If the line was breached, Zaen's army would be able to pour up and down our lines in either direction, rendering our primary trenches entirely pointless. Shit, given our relative location, their own plan was probably to cut our lines right about where we and the 70th were. Then they could hold the main body of our army off, and leave the five regiments out on the flank to be killed in detail.

I wasted maybe thirty or so seconds analyzing and considering that, and then remembering that the only thing I should have been thinking about was the fight right in front of us.

Which... wasn't going well.

"We need to get people into the trenches." I shook my head. "And fast."

Nara grunted. "The Second?"

"Leaves our flank in the open... fuck it, they aren't pressing hard on the left, and if we don't get people into place they're just going to roll right in after our guys."

"Order the Second to begin a withdrawal, at double time." She growled, a subordinate quickly relaying it. "Order Captain ul Haok to man the front trench, and to pass everyone else to the supporting line as they arrive."

The communications officer was in the middle of sending off that order when another heavy artillery strike came down. But this one wasn't a near hit that made us stumble, or sent more dirt drifting into the air.

This one hit more or less right on top of us.

Now, a fully developed bunker, deep enough underground, would have been able to withstand even the distant fortress's heavy guns. But we weren't exactly overflowing with the heavy constructive equipment and materials required to make such things. There might have been three or four locations in our entire line that could have withstood a heavy round. Kaste's primary command center, the primary medical center, and a couple of supply depots that held our own ordinance.

Notice that the regimental command post I was inside of was not included in that list.

I don't remember much of the immediate moments after. Human brains aren't really wired to be able to process things that happen that quickly, and the shock of the blast didn't improve things. All my eyes could tell me was a confusing blur of crap: A flash of fire, dirt falling, blue energy flaring from eezo pylons desperately trying to keep us alive. My other senses didn't tell me much either. There was a roar that nearly defeaned me, a whole lot of pain from being thrown into the ground, and other people screaming in surprise and pain.

And then I was outside, gasping, an arm around the communications guy, the Colonel on his other side as we hauled him into the trench.

I staggered as we set him down, letting him sit and recover his wits, then I glanced around and behind us. There had been a dozen or so other officers inside, but I could only see two others gasping and leaning against the trench's walls.

One more person shuffled out of the thrown open door behind us, and then there was a low rumbling sound and a rush of dust as the bunker finished collapsing.

"Sacred pillars." Nara breathed, gasping for air through her helmet.

"Yeah..." My own breath was coming too rapidly, the painkillers I'd taken this morning not quite up to the task of covering the pain as my ribs ached. "Athame's ass. That was... close."

"Yes...we..." She shook herself, trying to regain a proper posture. "We need coordination. More than we can do by simple communications. The reserve command post."

"Right...right." Following her example, I forced my back to straighten and lock into place. "Where is it?"

"The support line, sector sixty." Her helmet shifted to let her regard the others. "You three, get this man to the medical tent, then meet us."

I abruptly realized that the com officer's helmet was cracked, and he wasn't moving much. He was still breathing at least. That was something. I hoped.

"Reyja'krem." The Colonel's tone was of someone repeating herself, and I blinked rapidly and turned to regard her. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, just... shit. Yes." Forcing my shaking left hand around and behind me, I drew my carbine off of my back and expanded the weapon. It still took me a few breaths to refocus myself, but I got my mental ship back on course. "Right, secondary command post. You have a gun?"

She nodded, drawing a pistol and gesturing at a carbine on her back, her voice lowering so only I would hear it. "It's been a while since I've fought as a foot soldier."

"Then we need to get going."

Nara agreed with me, and we got moving through the largely empty reserve trenches. She was evidently not as collected as she seemed, because it took her at least as long as I did to realize that we were moving around during an active artillery barrage. Specifically at a barrage intended to hammer troops waiting in our reserve and supporting lines, the enemy likely having no idea that there weren't any.

The Colonel flinched heavily when a heavy round slammed down somewhere far too close for comfort, our armored bodies banging into each other as we staggered. She swore vitriolically, mostly directed at herself.

"If it kills us it kills us." I heard her mutter as we alternated between jogging and staggering as more blasts detonated nearby. "Being in a tiny dugout won't help."

Strictly speaking it would, or at least it would protect us from the shrapnel from a hit inside the trench. But a direct hit would bury, or more likely kill, us just as easily as the shot that had taken out our command post. Since that little fact wouldn't improve matters, and she probably knew it as well as I did, I kept my mouth shut and kept moving as fast as my aching ankle would allow.

We darted right into a communications trench, heading closer to the front down the zig-zagging line. After a minute or so of movement we reached the support line, and she gestured to the left as our radios crackled to life.

"Colonel!" An officer I didn't know spoke in urgent tones, "Fourth Company is starting to break, berserkers are present!"

Shit. "Shift all artillery to their location!" I snapped before the Colonel could speak. "Tell them to keep them at range and focus fire!"

There as a startled pause before the man almost stuttered out, "Y-Yes Reyja'krem!"

"Do you have a count?" The woman behind me growled as we ran, "How many Krogan are involved?"

There was a longer pause, likely as he passed on the orders before returning to her question, "Many, Colonel. The leading forces are city militia but there are Blood Pack formations supporting them. Captain Vriy reports they're advancing on any determined points of resistance."

"Shock troops." I growled. "You said formations? They've got Vorcha with them?"

"Armored Vorcha." A chill went threw my guts at the first word. The only Vorcha that wore armor were old, smart, or both. Veterans, in other words. "The 70th is reporting difficulties but they are holding... Captain Haok believes the enemy may be shifting in our direction."

Flowing around the rock of resistance, towards the weak-point of our unit.

Nara was silent for several long steps, then made the only decision she could. "Order all three Captains to detach one formation to cover the withdrawal of the others for as long as they can. All remaining troops are to move at double-time to our lines."

A single beat of silence followed before the Batarian man gravely intoned. "Yes ma'am."

I swallowed heavily. Most Warlord commands wouldn't follow an order like that, would never sacrifice themselves to protect the retreat of their comrades. But these soldiers were veterans, who'd been fighting beside one another since this war began. More to the point, they'd been out here, fighting the Blood Pack in the shit-fucking-storm that was this expedition, for months. Fighting an enemy that made a point of executing prisoners up above the trenches so that our observers and snipers could see it happen. Fighting an enemy when our supplies were intermittent enough that grenades had become a precious resource, and good food was now restricted to people in the front trenches.

They'd stay behind to protect their friends' backs, not for the general, or the warlord. And they'd die for it.

Shit. I should have been better at this, helped her come up with a better...

Sucking in a breath, I tightened my grip on my weapon to the point where it physically hurt, trying to keep my hands from shaking. If I had a panic attack now, it would kill me. I had to stay in control.

Forcing my legs to keep moving, I ducked into another communications trench. It carried us around a gun nest, currently occupied by a pair of men who looked like cooks. Stragglers from the Fifth Company, or men that their captain had purposefully left behind to try and help. Probably the latter.

Another minute of trench running brought us to our objective, or rather, where our objective had been.

"Athame's motherfucking azure..." I breathed, staring at the collapsed trench wall where the secondary command post had been. "When the fuck did this happen?"

The Colonel slowed to a stop, panting, but still managing to put a snarl into her voice. "Lieutenant, where are you operating from?"

"The Artillery plot room." He reported at once. "Have you reached the command post ma'am? We don't have the systems to manage the entire regiment from here."

"It's a crater." She snapped.

"But the systems are still on standby!" The man protested. "Still showing on the network!"

I stared at the collapsed dirt, frowned, and then swore. "Colonel, look there. The hit was right above the door, if the bunker followed the trench to the right it could still be intact. Just buried."

Another vicious oath escaped her. There was no fucking way we could unbury it, not in time to use the computers, holographic tables, and communications routers located inside. "Tell... inform..." She needed a gasping breath before she could force the words out. "Inform General Kaste that our ability to command the situation is compromised, and that I require relief."

If anything, there was an even longer pause than any that had come earlier before the Lieutenant replied. "Yes ma'am."

And that was that then. It had cost her something, more than something, to surrender her command that way. Practically speaking it was required, you couldn't manage a full blown battle with nothing but an omni-tool and a radio. The company commanders would be drowning in their own problems, intruding on their forward command positions would throw their own ability to manage the situation into chaos.

Which would be a death sentence for their troops, given the circumstances.

"Where is the nearest fire-step?"

I blinked, then turned to face her. "Pardon?"

She stared back at me through her black visor. "If I cannot command my regiment, I will at least stand on the line with them. Where is the nearest fire-step?"

"Colonel..." My head shook, "You're the fucking Colonel. You need to get back to the artillery station and help-"

"Reyja'krem!" Her voice became a snarl. "You are my subordinate right now, yes?"

"Yes." I might have twitched, more at the reminder than at her tone. "Those gunners could use help, there should be a rifleman's post in the nest with them."

"Then we will move."

And we did, doubling back on our path, reaching the gun nest in short order. It was basically a dirt bunker, slightly elevated to give the gun enough height to shoot over the defenses in front of it without unduly exposing the position. Metal bars had been shoved into the beam of soil protruding above the trench, creating a slit for the gun to shoot through while giving the gunners as much protection as possible.

The men manning the heavy gun were stunned to see us, but maintained enough focus to keep their attention down-range as we slipped around them and onto their right. There the vision slit was extended out a meter or so, with a fire-step in place for a sniper or riflemen to support the gun.

"Have you stood on the line before?" I asked the Colonel quietly, hefting my carbine up to rest the long barrel through our small window.

"No." She admitted, equally quietly. A carbine of the same make as mine was pulled from her back, though it lacked the numerous upgrades I'd crudely worked into mine over the last couple of months. "Advice, Reyja'krem?"

"Be irregular, don't constantly stay in place, that lets snipers focus on you." My ankle was throbbing full time now, and each breath was drawing from a deep ache in my chest. The adrenaline must have helped my already fast metabolism work through the pain killers. Lovely. "We don't have much room to move here, so go all out with your weapon until it overheats, then duck and let it cool. Rinse and repeat."

Nara nodded firmly, and copied my movements and got her weapon into position.

The first several minutes were the worst, because we could see the panicked retreat in all of its glory. Distant figures were running as fast as they could across the blasted and crated landscape of no-man's land, their dirty armor camouflaging them as well as a professional paint-scheme would have. Off on the right, there was an almost constantly, eye-assaulting series of bright orange flashes. The artillery trying to take out the berserkers teams on our right flank.

My visor took a moment to polarize, which I didn't appreciate much, given that it let me see the smaller flickers of gunfire and the tiny figures of the rear-guard.

We got to watch as the remnants of the attacking force, and the companies sent out to help them, hurled themselves into the trenches. Exhausted shouts and orders only occasionally audible as the enemy's artillery kept hitting around, but largely behind, us. The troops would be trying to spread out, to work out who needed to be where, what fire-steps needed to be manned, where reserves needed to be to counter-attack locally.

I tried to focus on that, rather than on what was happening in the distance, the rear-guard slowly buckling against enemies that I couldn't make out.

"Sacred Pillars..." Nara breathed, unable to look away from where her subordinates were dying.

"They honored the Pillars today." I replied quietly. "The Paragons will welcome them."

She was silent for a moment. "Do you really believe that?"

My right shoulder rolled in an Asari shrug before I brought my carbine back against it, staring down the sights as my HUD supplied the targeting reticle. "I'm starting to think that I would like to. Probably Thul's influence, plus this bloody campaign. Or maybe it's just the exhaustion and pain talking."

"You could have just left it at the start." Her tone was almost nervous, but I could tell she was trying for wry. "It would have been better for my morale."

I snorted. "I'm terrible for anyone's morale. You might not have noticed, but I don't have much tact. And I'm kind of an ass."

"At least you're decorative." The Colonel seemed to freeze for a moment, apparently her mouth had gotten ahead of her brain. "I mean.. movement."

Swallowing a teasing retort, my eyes snapped down-range. The last of the soldiers trying to hold back the tide had apparently fallen, because now I could only see figures coming in slow, purposeful motions. They were moving in a fire and advance fashion, portions of units laying out covering fire as others sprinted forwards and then threw themselves to the ground to take over the firing part.

"Ignore the shooters, take out the runners." The words came out in time with my first gunshot. A breather later the heavy gun a meter to our left opened up in long, heavy bursts that sent at least a few enemies to the ground.

The Colonel joined my in firing away, our rifles barking rapidly. I didn't think she hit much, but then again I wasn't exactly an expert marksman either. We contributed, lowering ourselves when our weapons overheated, rising to resume shooting once they were cool enough to do so.

And each time we came up, the enemy was closer.

The troops of the 54th were doing what they could, getting into position, firing away as best they could. But they were exhausted. Half of them had fought their way across no-man's land this morning, fought in the enemy's trenches, and then had to fight their way back after. To say their aim was off was probably being charitable. Athame's ass we were probably lucky most of them had the strength to hold their guns at all.

Our artillery was likewise struggling to stay in the fight. The enemy's over the horizon guns had shifted targets, trying to locate and eliminate our batteries. They had to relocate when one barrage nearly landed on top of them, the enemy walking it in their direction. Which left us with just the lighter mortars, which were punishing the advance, but not nearly enough.

Now and then the Lieutenant came back on, updating his Colonel on what was happening as best as he could. Without the command post's systems he couldn't keep track of everything, and our understanding of the overall battle more or less vanished into just the section we were in.

"Right!" I snarled, "They're rushing!"

The machine gunners swung their coolant fed weapon around as the Colonel and I fired until our guns locked up. Maybe a dozen distant forms fell, dead or wounded, to our fire and to others. But there was plenty where they'd come from, grenades flying out ahead of them before they launched themselves into our forward trench.

"We can't keep this up." She growled, impatiently glaring at her weapon through her visor.

"We have to." I reminded her. "Or did you have a fallback plan?"

Another low growl. "You really are an ass, aren't you?"

"At least I'm decorative." I replied, hefting myself back up as my weapon cooled. "We need to-shit!"

Flinching back down, I grabbed her shoulder to keep her down a half-breath before the carnage round slammed into our little bunker. A second hit bare moments later, then a third. Something heavier, maybe a full-on missile, struck last of all, burrowing through the dirt before detonating. The heavy gun went abruptly silent, and I felt a stinging pain in my back even as my armor reported that the blasts had drained my barriers.

"Colonel!"

"I'm all right!" She coughed, staggering off of the step and into the trench. "The gunners aren't."

Turning, I felt air escape me in a seething sigh. The gun was little more than scrap metal, and the men who'd crewed it were both down. Shrapnel had torn them both apart, their blood pooling around their still forms.

"Back on the step, we need to-" A deep, furious bellow cut me off. My back tightened in entirely natural fear at the sound. "-to find that berserker and fucking drop it!"

Turning around, I hefted myself up enough that I could see over what was left of the dirt beam.

I found the Krogan more or less at once, because it was looming above the front line trench right in front of me. It was a biotic, probably had used a charge to get to where he was, and even as I watched he held out a stubby arm and let loose a gout of warp-fire into the trench.

Screams became audible over the gunfire and blasting artillery.

My gun snapped up on reflex, and I pinged a round off the barriers protecting his back. I don't think he even noticed it, nor the second. He did notice when I switched tactics, freeing my left hand to trigger my tech-mine launcher. The overload exploded above his hump, lightning arcing over his massive form to rip and tear at his protection.

The furious howl of berserker rage sounded as he whirled around, snap-firing a shotgun round in my direction. Most beings would miss, but Okeer's projects weren't most beings. The spreading shot smacked across my head and shoulders, my barely recovering barriers abruptly shorting out once again.

Snarling, I triggered my next mine, an incinerate, then ducked down before the massive alien could fire again. I couldn't hear the detonation, and I could only hope that my overload and prior damage had lowered his barriers enough for the incendiary blast to hurt him.

I got my answer sooner than I wanted, just as the Colonel reached the fire-step. A shadow flickered past overhead, too fast to be properly tracked, and then the Krogan was hurling head-first past us in a biotic rush. But he'd misjudged the angle, not noticing the incline that the trench was set into. Instead of landing on his feet, ready to spin around and blast us from the high ground, his lower half smacked into the trench wall, drawing a startled roar of pain, and then he was dropping to the ground with a heavy crash.

Nara might not have fought as a regular soldier in a while, but her reaction times remained excellant. She joined me in shooting the downed Krogan as rapidly as possible, our shots hammering at armor blackened from my mine.

But even two dozen heavy rounds at point-blank range weren't much to a fucking berserker. Its armor held up to all but the last couple of shots, which only drew grunts of pain and dribbles of orange blood from its chest and side as it rolled onto a knee, gathering itself.

His shotgun was rising as well, but only in one hand. I was moving before I was conscious of having made the decision to advance, twisting my body to deliver a brutal kick with my right leg right where his fingers were holding the weapon. I howled in pain along with him as my ankle informed me how stupid of an idea that had been, but his gun went flying.

Then I was in agony. A lot of it. A fist slammed into my chest, hurling me a good meter through the air and sending me tumbling along the trench.

Reflexes drilled into me from too many sparring sessions with Illyan had me spinning up to one knee, knowing that to stay down was to die. My carbine had flown free from my hands, leaving me with just the pistol on my belt. I couldn't use mines, not this close, they'd cook my unshielded ass just as they would his. For her part, the Colonel threw her overheated weapon aside and grabbed one of the former machine gunner's pistols and promptly began firing again.

The Berserker had his back to her, but I could see him twitching and jerking with each shot. He was slowing, but not stopping, and biotic power began to wreathe his shot arms as he readied enough energy to pulverize me.

It missed when I did something that would have been extraordinarily stupid in any other circumstance. I feinted left, then ignored the throbbing agony in my ankle and darted towards him. Warpfire ripped at my right arm, but the main stream flew past without seriously hurting me. My hand-cannon unfolded in my right hand as I moved, that arm snapping the weapon up and into line with my massive target.

My first shot tore threw the battered and broken armor on his chest, a heavy spurt of blood following it. Shot two made the hole wider. Shot three blew apart one of his hands when he tried to raise it to hurl more fire at me. Then I was close enough to do what I wanted, darting right to dodge a clumsy, almost tired punch, and then my gun was shoved right under its protruding helmet, the barrel pointed up.

I hobbled back, the pain rushing in again after I pulled the trigger, the dead creature collapsing in front of me.

Shit, I was.. really light headed... oh right... air. I needed air. That was important. More pain joined the chorus as I inhaled, and I realized that the fucker had hit me on my right. Now I probably had fucking bruised ribs on both sides. If not broken ones.

Fucking son of a bitch. Athame's ass... I needed Voya here to take this fucker's crest off, maybe I'd mount it on my power armor.

"Reyja'krem?" The Colonel's voice was concerned, and I realized that she was crouching in front of me as I sat on the trench floor beside the corpse. "Reyja'krem!"

"I... sorry..." I was breathing too quickly, and it was seriously hurting. Focusing, I slowed the pace of inhalations... then nearly jumped when a odd crack thundered above us. "What the... tell me that wasn't a tank... I don't want to fight a tank too."

An almost breathy laugh preceded her words. "It was, but it's ours. The 32nd is moving along our lines and hammering the attackers. Kaste released them from their patrol on the flank."

"Smart... smart." I repeated, shaking myself a bit. "They wouldn't have brought anti-armor with. Wouldn't have expected the need."

"Quite so." She exhaled heavily. "I've called for a medic for you, and I need to get to Colonel Lorus's command tank to finish coordinating the fight. But after this is resolved..." Her helmet turned to stare at the dead Krogan, and then back at me, her body posture shifting. "I will pay you a visit, if you do not mind."

"I... oh." I abruptly recognized her pose, tired and covered in armor as it was. What it meant she was offering. Somewhere was a voice telling me not to even think about it, trying to remind me about all of the hang-ups and problems I still had with casual things, but before I could even attempt to articulate any of that my mouth went off on its own accord. "My injuries would be a problem."

"Then I will be on top. And gentle." Nara replied, her tone tired but amused. "Mostly."

I stared at her for a few long moments, then I gasped out a laugh as the adrenaline rush faded, leaving me... almost giddy as my body realized it was still alive. I turned to stare at the dead Krogan, then back at her small form, and then I shrugged, still wheezing in pained laughter, and dipped my head in approval. "I'll expect you. Don't get killed."

Nara let out a quiet laugh of her own. "I won't. Today, at least."

It was probably a terrible idea... but after today?

After today we both deserved something good, and good seemed to be in terribly short supply.

Next up is Interlude X: Conspiracy Theory

A very Cieran centric chapter thanks to his prior injuries, but everyone else will be returning in the next chapter. Which will cover the larger view of the attempted attack's aftermath, as well as a theory being developed by the team. After that we'll be moving onto the last Operation of the story: Breakthroughs, following it with Interlude XI: Death Knell, and then wrapping Vengeance up with an Epilogue arc.

A note on the romance poll below. After discussing things with the Blocked Writer, I believe I have firmly settled on who Cieran will be with long term (beginning at the end of the next story). To that end, the romance poll will be closed at the end of Vengeance. The one-shot will be written at some-point before or during Einherjar, depending upon who wins it (to avoid making it overly obvious who Cie will be with).

Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."

Thanks, Kat

Current Poll Standings:

Voya – 20

Sederis – 19

Illyan – 8

Review Responses:

Tusken1602 → A bit of a tease; According to my (still a work in progress) outline, Cie will be running into Kelly during the prologue operation of Einherjar, which will be taking place on Xentha. Whether or not he recognizes her... I'll leave that for you to imagine. :)

Tallygirl02 → The problem I'm honestly having with the AR series is that there are so many parts that I would love to do entire stories about. There's so many ideas I start and then have to stop working on and cut out because I need to keep the plot moving. In the case of the last chapter, I would have loved to put in the actual raid itself, but its aftermath and the discussions that followed were more important than a long, epic fight (as fun as it would have been).

Griezz → As long as that someone isn't me lol, they can feel free to make an attempt at it.

BJ Hanssen → My home office does double-duty as a small library, and maybe a third of the books are of the military history variety. It's something of a hobby really.

Gods-own → Well there was a forlorn hope, though Cie himself didn't take part in it. The chapter after next will be more... appropriate in terms of your quote.