Suroc Temple, Tuchanka

Day 1, 0445

"What the bloody hell is happening?"

It was a rather apt question, Dax thought. Mere moments after he heard Vresh bellow it, the Urdnot scout had to hurl himself headlong towards the wall to avoid falling into the abyss. Whatever the hell was happening, it was utterly insane. The air was thick with krogan death-bellows and the screeching of husks, all blurred amidst the noise of crumbling, crashing stone. A harrowing scream filled the air, far too loud to have come from a husk or krogan, and there was a flash of steel-like skin. And then...

Silence.

Conspicuous silence. The occasional echo of crumbling rock filtered through the background, but apart from that, the air was still. Just as quickly as it had come, the screaming thing had disappeared beneath their feet. Dax rolled over onto his back, shuffling up towards the wall and away from the great black rift at his feet, as he took stock of the situation.

It was a mess, really. The mausoleum had been mauled as if by a god – two great scars were stretching the length of the hall, one on the ceiling, one on the floor. The gash in the ceiling was letting light pour into the once-blackened tomb, while the rip in the floor, by contrast, showed nothing but darkness beneath. Scattered around the edges of the abyss were krogan and husks, with the former getting slowly to their feet and putting the latter out of their misery. He saw Vresh boot a husk into the chasm, sending it screaming downwards, but the rest of his team was nowhere to be seen, and Suroc Jarr was conspicuous by his absence.

"Head to the light!" he called, finally. "Get back to the trucks and regroup!"

As he spoke, a few husk stragglers were already descending from the walls. The scout grabbed his Revenant from the floor where it had fallen and mowed down two with a savage burst of fire, all the while backing up and making sure he wasn't about to fall over the precipice.

"You heard him!" shouted another voice. "To the trucks! Cover your backs as you go!"

Backing up was far slower than simply running, but it worked. Step by step, they moved towards the outside world, and the husks never made it closer than twenty yards, mown down by crossfire as they approached. After a few minutes, Dax found himself shoulder-to-shoulder with Vresh on one side, and a Suroc soldier on the other. They were the last ones out of the entrance, and as the last few husks fell, they heard a cry from somewhere behind them.

"Fall back!" the voice said. "Get down the steps, double time! First three down, take the guns!"

Turning to look, Dax saw that the Suroc lieutenant, Meer, was the one giving the orders. At his words, the Suroc soldiers turned and began to sprint down the steps – the Urdnot scout followed suit, rushing down the steps two at a time, and to the left, he could hear Vresh at his heels. They were all hurtling down towards the tomkahs drawn up around the base of the stairs – one of them his, and two belonging to the Surocs. Meer's comment about 'the guns' suddenly made sense, as he saw the first Suroc warrior reach the bottom, and clamber up into the nearest truck without missing a stride.

Dax and Vresh were still half way up the side of the temple when the tomkah began to fire. A mass accelerator shot roared over their heads, and the krogan felt the heat on his back as it exploded, scattering husks. A few moments later, a gunner scrambled into the second tomkah, and that second gun joined the first – then, a third. They battered the steps relentlessly, and by the time Dax came to a panting halt at the bottom of the stairs, there were no husks left, only corpses ripped apart by fire.

The guns fell silent as suddenly as they had begun, and the cluster of krogan at the base of the stairs exchanged shell-shocked expressions.

"Is everyone alright?" Meer asked, apparently ignoring the missing soldiers for the time being. "Any wounded?"

"Rett's got a broken arm," one of the warriors muttered, nodding to his friend - he was holding a rifle in his left hand, utterly ignoring his right as it dangled limply at his side.

"It's fine," 'Rett' replied, with a dismissive grunt. "I can still fight."

"I know you can," the lieutenant frowned. "But you'll fight even better with it fixed. There's medi-gel in the truck. Tazz, patch him up."

The two krogan disappeared into one of the tomkahs – Rett rather reluctantly – and Meer turned to stare at Dax. He wasn't quite sure what to expect, but to his surprise, the Suroc warrior let out a weary sigh, and paced over to him, shaking his head.

"What the hell happened?" he muttered, taking Dax to one side – presumably to avoid panicking the troops.

"I don't know... I thought a Reaper landed or something, but..."

But, the skies were clear. Sort of. The sandstorm was still whipping around them, but the air was conspicuously Reaper-free. A dull rumble echoed somewhere in the distance – the stone inside the tomb was probably shifting, debris breaking up and falling to the ground.

"What are your casualties like?" Meer asked.

"I've got one still standing, but the other three... I don't know. Could they even survive that fall?"

"The crypts go miles beneath the ground," the Suroc lieutenant sighed, not sounding too hopeful. "If the whole structure fell through..."

"How many did you lose?" Dax murmured, and Meer took a quick head count.

"Err... four soldiers, I think. And Jarr..."

"Good riddance," the Urdnot scout muttered, under his breath. The other krogan looked at him curiously. "No offense, but your chief's an ass."

"I know."

Dire as the situation was, Dax couldn't help laughing at that. Vresh, however, wasn't laughing as he made his way over to them. He looked shell-shocked and harrowed, and was gripping his rifle very tightly.

"What's the plan?" he inquired, anxiously. The two other krogan exchanged looks, as if devising the plan telepathically, before Meer seemed to come to a decision.

"We hold here," the lieutenant nodded. "We can't risk leaving and letting those husks escape into the dunes. The tomkahs can keep them penned in, and keep the route clear for survivors."

"Right," Vresh replied, approvingly. Apparently, he was clinging on to the possibility of there being survivors. "I'll call the Cambrai, tell them what's going on..."