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Instinct cried out a warning and he ducked under the hot, crackling Biotic rounds that soared through the space he'd just been in. More followed behind it, slamming into the wall he was hidden behind and an unfortunate medic that had been running along the back of the walkway to whatever cause he had been needed for. He floated up and back, flailing as he soared high into the air, towards the ceiling of Omega's district. He spared the medic a thought of sympathy while he slammed a fresh thermal clip home but couldn't afford any more, standing and seeking a target in the same fluid moment, the world watering down to what he could see down the sight of his rifle.
An Adjutant stepped clear of a car laying on its side, crackling blue, and his rounds ripped into it. Short bursts into its knees and feet that staggered it under the force, its Barriers able to block the round but not all of the kinetic force behind them. Two more bursts downed its protections and a third found its face, the abomination collapsing as another took its place. It lasted only a moment before a Biotic blast slammed into the car, sending it screeching away along the road and crushing a dozen of the blighted creatures as it went.
"Hah, fuckers!" Aria called, taking a knee beside him to catch her breath for a moment. The kindly Krogan and his Human friend had long since moved to other parts of the wall to fight, leaving her the space.
He ducked down to evade a handful of biotic cannonballs that whistled over his head, one yanking a soldier off the wall behind him and hurling him away at high speed and she smiled. He sighed and stood to pepper the area with a couple more bursts before kneeling again, slamming home a new thermal clip and grunting, "Gettin' thin in their center flank."
"Should be." She nodded, "With all the other fights and this one too? Must've killed half the district by now."
"Mhm." He didn't like how flippant she was over such loss given just how many they'd killed in the last hour of fighting.
He vented the agitation into aggression, though, standing and seeking out another target with hawkish precision. As it fell another stepped into the same spot, his round ripping into its Barrier until a Biotic cannonball from further afield caught it in it stomach, sending it tumbling through the air in two halves trailing ichor and organs alike. Its heavyset top slammed down on another of its kind, killing it too, and he heard Aria chuckle at the sight. He simply shrugged it off, cycling to the next target.
And then flinching, as four of the Adjutants came together, Biotics building around one of them. "Down!" He snarled, slamming his shoulder into Aria to put himself between her and an Adjutant wreathed in white hot Biotic fire courtesy of three of its fellows, careening straight for them with all the force of a missile. She landed first, courtesy of his having shoved her, and he slammed into her a moment later, covering her with his body.
Then, the Biotic whump ripped the air, hurling them apart and sending what felt like fire screaming across his body. His back slammed into a formerly-Cerberus barracks building so hard it - and his ribs - dented, the ODST landing in a heap of partially scorched armor and groaning soldier. He rolled onto his back, ears ringing and sight blurred, and groaned, fumbling for his rifle beside him and dragging it across his chest while he lay there.
He would permit himself the shortest couple of moments, to breathe and collect himself, at least. A massive hole had been ripped in the thin, armored metal of the wall, scattering or killing all of the soldiers who'd been on top of it. A massive hunk of the metal wall had been blown in and wrent aside, blackened and melted into curls spread out along the floor of Omega's ancient concrete. Crates and soldiers lay in heaps, some groaning, others crushed, and all shifting awkwardly as they came to rest.
And through the hole, dozens more Adjutants loping forward from the fronts of buildings, as though they'd been waiting for the hole to appear. Just more evidence of tactics that the Reapers' lesser infantry weren't supposed to be capable of without a Reaper ship in the system…
Regardless, ears still ringing and vision swimming, he forced himself to roll over and pushed himself up and onto his knees. Kneeling, he lifted his mostly undamaged Harrier and sprayed fire through the opening at the oncoming Reapers. The rounds sparked mostly harmlessly off of Barriers and armor but, and though his vision might have betrayed him, he saw one or two go down to his inaccurate fire being added to that of his allies. On the Reapers came, though, loping, limping and even Biotically leaping into the gap in the wall.
Mercenaries and soldiers moved to fill the gap, peppering the monsters on their approach and flicking out Omni-Blades and, in some cases, actual weapons to engage them. Biotic attacks hurled some back, others were overwhelmed and dragged down to be mauled, and even more turned and fled, seeking a place to fire from range instead of fighting in the brutal melee. As he watched, One Turian's twin Omni-Blades buried themselves in a screaming Adjutant, a leg kicking out to drive another back. Wrenching the weapons free he staggered back, slicing both blades horizontally to take another Adjutant by the throat as it scrambled over its dying brother.
Then, a Biotic blast slammed into him from the side, hurling him through two more soldiers and into a wall. All three soldiers were overwhelmed before they could get back on their feet, dragged under a writhing mass of bodies as the defenders were pushed back.
"Up." A semi-familiar, gravelly voice barked, a meat hand closing around his upper arm. The Krogan from before, bleeding from a massive gash along his arm, shoved him back into the woman from before as he rose. Hefting a shotgun in one hand and a meaty, one-handed axe in the other, he stepped between the ODST and the frantic fighting, "Give 'im something to steady his head."
"Hold still. Are you allergic to adrenal shots?" The woman murmured, voice distinctly Australian in that deep, rolling sort of way. He shook his head and felt a prick in his back, just below the plates that protected his stomach. A moment later he felt the oddly forced perkiness of the ergogenic drug coursing through him and straightened, the woman running a scan with her Omni-Tool over his head and chest, "No sign of anything too broken. Do you need anaesthetic?"
"No." He grunted, ignoring the pain talking caused to flare along his torso. Checking his rifle over quickly and changing out its thermal clip, he turned back to the fight. "Anaesthetics would make me an ineffective combatant."
"That's…" The woman shook her head, "No how any of this works."
"Is for Krogan." The large alien grunted, turning to slam a fist into his least burnt shoulder. Turning back, he marched towards the fight with his axe resting on a shoulder, calling back, "Gimme space and support, but stay outta the damn way. Both of you."
"He's-"
"Like that. Yeah." The ODST nodded, turning and climbing onto a crate beside the occupied barracks for a better vantage. Shrugging, he knelt and raised the rifle, finding the Krogan's back as he loped into the fray in the heavy sort of gait that only a Krogan could naturally make. "I know Krogan."
The meaty alien slammed into an Adjutant with enough force to crush it back, axe coming down to split it from from shoulder to crotch. Wading in, he slammed the shotgun into another Adjutant's chest, the blast hurling it back in thirds that scattered along the Adjutant's thinning lines. Rolling his shoulders, he opened fire, long bursts cutting down any Reapers moving towards him and allowing him to wade further into the Reaper lines.
As he went, the other soldiers rallied around him, more for the opening he made than for anything intrinsic to him, and began carving long furrows of fury through the lines as he parted them. The focused fire turned the thin gap the Krogan left into a steadily widening avenue. One that was swiftly filled with more soldiers, cutting them back in a flurry of orange Omni-Gel and whatever melee weapons they had besides. Aria, wreathed in Biotic fire, leapt from somewhere behind him and flew high, arcing down like a mortar blast and hurling the Reapers away in bloody heaps.
That served as the end of the battle, moving them on to simpler clean-up.
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"God damn it!" Aria hissed, seated on a crate in the shadow of a ramp that led up onto the defensive wall, with her armor peeled to expose her chest. And the horrifying burn that stretched across one breast and around to her back, curling around her shoulders like the broken fingers of some monster. The Krogan from earlier stood behind her, watching the crowd for curious eyes while his Human partner tended to the wounded queen.
Fingers curled into a fist, Aria demanded in a low hiss, "Could you not do that? It fuckin' hurts!"
"I know it hurts." The woman answered quietly, red hair bared now she'd taken her helmet off to work. Hands pressed against the Asari's chest, pushing the ruined skin up so she could pinch the dead flesh off. It came off in red strips and he winced sympathetically, more than a few plasma scars adorning his own body that had suffered similar treatments. "But if I don't get it off, you'll get an Eezo infection. Or a normal one, when the dead skin gets covered up by healthy skin. Assumin' it won't cause an Adjutant infection all on its own, I mean."
"Still…"
"Want some anaesthesia?"
"I'm not a maiden who can't take some damn burn treatments!" Aria snapped, irrespective of the fact she very much was acting like she couldn't take the burn treatment. Ignoring it, she rested her hand on the opposite knee, squeezing it as the other woman worked and she turned her eyes on the ODST. "Tell me the damn district is clear, Doe. I want to finish this little war game."
"It's mostly clear, your rather noisy Highness." He answered simply, disliking her flippant treatment of the battle they'd just come from enough to snark at the already agitated woman.
"Not the time to be Cunty McSnark, Doe." She threatened, waving a hand to her bare, burned chest and glaring. With as much of her 'friendly' snark as she was able to force through gritted teeth, she ground out, "Enjoy the view quietly, or answer my damn questions, Doe. When can we move?"
"Fireteams are sweeping the district from all sides, ours and the other ally-occupied districts as well." And possibly Cerberus', too, but bad news and a pissed off Aria didn't seem a good combination. Besides, they hadn't actually received any confirmation of that as of yet, so assuming wouldn't make much sense. "The wounded are here under heavy guard, receiving treatment and, if needed, isolation in case of potential Adjutant infection."
As though on cue, someone sle cried out 'No!' ahead of a gun crack, the camp falling into stillness for a moment. A heartbeat later, though, they moved on with a grim and practiced sort of ease. Quietly, he added, "Instances of infection that are identified surely are… Sterilized."
"Yeah, figured that out, you…" She trailed off then, wincing as another strip of burnt skin was peeled back, and met his even gaze. Then she turned it on his rifle and smiled, toothy and feral. "That's why you and the Krogan are here. In case I'm infected."
"Actually," the Krogan rumbled, "I'm only here because Alex asked me to scare off anyone tryin' to see your tits. Dunno why anyone would want to, burnt to fuck as they are, but-"
"Finish that thought and you will sleep on the couch for a month." The woman threatened, earning a loud chuff of amusement from her. And a curious look from her patient and the ODST. She only shrugged, through, brushing them both off with a wave of her hand. "None 'o your damn business. Back to work, thanks."
"I'm here in case you are infected, though." He confirmed, the Asari grimacing. Shrugging, he added quietly, "I wouldn't trust anyone else to be able to deal with you if it came to it. You're too strong, Ma'am."
"And you can handle me?"
"Maybe not, but I'm not letting anyone else get in line before me for a chance to shoot you." She chuckled at the crass joke, and then winced and hissed as the woman dragged off a long line of burnt flesh. Nodding in satisfaction, the woman sealed the bag of trash and set it aside, setting to work disinfecting and bandaging the woman's chest. More serious, he explained, "You seem alright, Ma'am. But I didn't want anyone facing your Biotic power if you started to turn on them."
"That sounds dangerously like a compliment…"
"An acknowledgement." He corrected quietly, turning to look back out on the camp. No one could forget the amount of sheer, raw damage that she had been able to put out in the battle. "Is she clear, Alex?"
"As can be, yeah." The woman grunted, too focused on her work for him to expect any of the usual decorum he might have. "Just gotta get her wrapped and she should be fine. Oughta be up in a few-"
"An hour." The Asari grunted hotly, raising her arm straight over her head like a student with a question while she was wrapped in bandages. Face pinched in pain as pressure was put on her wounds, she forced out, "One hour, and we meet out at the front gate. You and I are headed out to scout, see what we can see of the next district. Maybe the Adjutants broke Cerberus' defensive lines."
"Mhm." It was always possible, he figured. And hey, it would make his job easier, so he wasn't one to reject the concept out of hand. Still. "An hour and a half." He corrected as gently as he could, "Get some food in you and rest. I'll do the same and we can head out, as fit and ready for whatever we run into as possible."
"...Fine." The Asari grunted, no doubt tired and exhausted, and happy to get some rest even if she wouldn't play the 'weakling' over needing it. She nodded regardless and waved him off, "Go on, then. Get yourself a nap or whatever you feel like you need and let me know when you are ready to get our damn mission done."
"We still have several districts to get through to do that." He pointed out quietly, turning to give her a look over his partially burnt shoulder armor. She only smirked, though, and he sighed. "I have a feeling you have an idea, though… And I hate it."
"You 'n me both." She nodded, chuckling quietly to herself, "You 'n me both."
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He ducked the awkward swing of the Trooper's broken rifle and stepped in, slamming his off shoulder into its sternum and then following as it staggered back and away. The man snarled an insult that his knife cut off, burying in its throat as the patrolman went stiff and then fell back and away. He landed in a heap, clutching his throat vainly in an attempt to buy time for help. Or an instinctive flailing attempt to stimy the bleeding and live, as impossible as that sounded.
Two suppressed rounds from his M7S saw an end to that, though.
"About time you finished playing with that, Doe." Aria groused, her own opponent a bundle of ruin armor and smeared blood, pushed into a crater she'd made in a wall for him to rest in. She dusted her hands off and shook her head, murmuring as much to him as to no-one, "Figures Cerberus would already be sending patrols into the damn district. Why wouldn't they?"
"Mhm." It made sense. Once the Adjutants had been pushed back and cut down, and didn't return, they'd push in to retake the district. From the Coalition, the Adjutants, or even possibly both. Whatever the case, he turned to her and bobbed his head up the alleyway, towards the street and the sounds of boots echoing. "There's more of 'em. Around or through, Aria?"
"Not using my rank?"
"Forgive me." He sighed, absent-mindedly patting the magazines stowed on his hip to remind himself he was well-supplied. "Around or through the what sounds like three squads of Cerberus soldiers, my queen?"
"Hah, that's better. Nice and polite." She laughed, shaking her head and looking to the end of the alleyway. With pursed lips, she sighed tiredly, "My contact is supposed to be in one of these buildings, actually." A gun cracked, suddenly, mixed with a Cerberus cry of alarm and Aria sighed, "And that would be my contact getting antsy and shooting at them. Goddamn gang bangers..."
"Gangsters?" He growled,"Your contact is a gangster isn't he?"
"Most of my army is made up of gangs." She countered easily, taking long steps, crackling Biotic energy that flowed off her like water, towards the alley's end. Hips swaying to match her sass, she chuckled, "I don't know if you noticed, but I have a bit of a gig going on here. Pirate queen, matriarch of mafias, grand lad of the gangs… I thought you knew, Doe."
"I'll try not to let my estimation of you drop too far. Your Highness." He sighed, shouldering his M7 and rolling his shoulders to ready himself. Stretching his bruised side before going into yet another firefight, as was his job. "Quickly, then. So they can't call more reinforcements down on our heads."
"Fast and rough, then." The woman nodded, grinning ferally, "The fun way."
He went behind her, naturally, the woman crackling so dangerously that he didn't dare try and get ahead of her.
As they rounded the corner, the woman lashed out with a hand, a Biotic cannonball careering away with an explosive result he couldn't see. Rifle fire answered her and she crouched, hissing as her side no doubt flared but scurrying to the side regardless, crossing the street as the rounds peppered her Barrier and the ground around her alike. Both, seemingly, to an embarrassingly equivalent level of effect. The woman came to a parked skycar in her retreat and, kneeling, sent it hurtling up the road, trailing blue Biotic fire all the way and silencing her assailant's reprisal fire.
An opening that he was all too happy to exploit, kneeling around the corner of the alley's entrance in cover.
Stepping into the street, he saw the devastation she had already wrought. Three men down the road had been crushed into one heap and then slammed up, into a walkway that crossed over the road. Four more, a Centurion helmet laying on the road in a streak of red speaking to the quality of her targets, had been crushed and smeared across the road by the hurtling car as well. In total, she'd killed an entire squad on her own, and both of the Centurions in charge of it when a Biotic cannonball caught the other in the chest and hurtled him high into the air to crash down with predictable, bloody results.
"Well," he murmured, "at least she's on my side."
Raising his M7, he began to simply pace forward up the road towards the enemy position, eyes narrow and watching the soldiers. Soldiers who didn't notice him for a long moment, huddling behind the same car that had killed their fellows and now stretched across the road, forming a decent enough barrier for them to hide behind. More cars lay along the road to either side and he made it the length of one and half another before he was noticed, a Cerberus soldier standing and turning his small defense weapon on him.
A long burst of armor piercing fire ripped into his face and throat to put an end to that plan. The other three, though, stood to pepper him in fire that forced him down. Aria stood to support him and she, too, was forced into cover. Kneeling behind the car, he crawled along with one arm and the other holding his M7, trying to edge closer. Trying to get a shot, from the rear of the car instead of the front, at a better angle they might not have expected him from.
A shimmer caught his attention, though and he flinched, eyes widening for the shortest breath of a moment. For a short moment he stood still, ignoring the gunshots pinging off the car he was hiding behind. Then he was moving, rising and staggering back as he wheeled about with his own weapon and stepped out of the swinging range of what he assumed had to be a Phantom.
Instead of a sword, though, a massive cable wreathed in electricity slammed into him, frying him for the instant of contact. As he soared up and through the air, his body spasmed and his vision blurred, the veritable lightning coursing through him from each piece of metal armor to the next, like conduits that continued the pain. An upside, though, was that as he slammed down on the car Aria was hiding behind, he'd been numbed too much to properly feel any of it.
"Fucking wonderful!" Aria snarled, standing to grab him and yank him out of his dent, letting him collapse in a pain filled heap beside her on the sidewalk.
He landed heavily, with his head and shoulders laying just past the edge of the vehicle's rear, which let him have a decent enough view of the road across from him. And the armored Dragoon, who hurled the car he'd been using for covering towards them with his two Biotically charged cables. Aria caught it on a Bubble Barrier and grunted, firing off a cannonball into its chassis to launch it away from them as he approached them.
"Explosives." He grunted, rolling over and fishing two of the det-charges out with a shaking hand. Technically, they were only meant to be used on buildings and armored units, or for sabotage. But just then, he didn't give a damn. "Good for destroying buildings."
"So?" She demanded, stealing his M7 to pepper the oncoming Dragoon as it crossed the road.
"People are less durable than buildings." He explained, the woman blinking and taking the charges from him. She slapped both on the car and then snarled, Pushing it forward into the Cerberus agent.
He reared back and up, slamming the sables down into the car to stop it. But Aria had anticipated this and leapt atop the car and for him, slamming down on the hood and then in towards him with her good shoulder. She caught his face with her shoulder and slammed the ODST's M7S into his gut, emptying the magazine straight into the lighter armored man's abdomen. He spasmed as the weapon exhausted itself and collapsed, limp and bleeding from dozens of holes that had merged into great wound in his stomach, like a claw had gouged it out.
Then, with a grunt of Biotic effort, she hurled the car up and towards the other Cerberus soldiers who had until now held position, waiting to see what would happen. It landed behind them and she barked, "Detonate 'em!"
He did with a simple push of a button, the explosion reverberating through the ground under him. A single rifle and the hand gripping it, sans the rest of the soldier, landed a few feet in front of him and he sighed. A moment later, the Asari was stood over him, watching him cough and smirking.
"Come here often?" She asked amusedly, offering a hand up.
"Not if I can help it." He grunted, letting her drag him up, standing on shaky legs. Aching all over in the way only someone electrocuted could, he waved around them and chuckled darkly, "You don't exactly keep a clean place, you know?"
The woman only chuckled in response, leading him away up the road to meet her 'contact'. Whoever it was, he was at least sure it was worth the effort. Aria didn't exactly seem the type to waste her time on frivolous pursuits that weren't worth the investment, after all. She offered him his weapon back and he took it with a nod of thanks, reloading it affectionately as they walked.
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Not a lot of plot movements to be had, here. Just an action oriented chapter. Hope you enjoyed and I didn't fuck up too many spellings.
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Dr Killinger :
No, but yeah, he certainly is a badass. Sadly, no Mama Shepard until after Omega is done with. Which, thankfully, won't be TOO much longer.
