Kolyat felt no shame as he let out a yelp before bringing his shotgun up and sending the full volley into the Reaper's remaining face. One could not be in the Alliance military now without hearing stories about the Reapers. Their sheer unnaturalness. The hideousness of them. The way they stank close to. The way they formed either mindless waves, or slightly more complicated assaults if the right ground units were present. That they ate human flesh—some of them…or maybe all of them, no one seemed sure.
Kolyat was fairly sure Reapers would chew on anything, no matter what the species, and he hoped that for every husk that chewed on a turian, or every Marauder that chewed on a levo-based species, that Reaper physiology wouldn't stop the allergic reactions.
The Reapers were awful…but he found he didn't feel the same gut-level fear he'd sensed from the humans around him, swapping stories and rumors. They were disgusting, loathsome even, but apart from that…
Boom. Another husk's head exploded.
They died very easily, even if they did try to swarm an opponent. McVie was right: this was the perfect time for a shotgun's wider spray. As it was, Kolyat found himself migrating back and forth from the front of the three-man team to the rearguard, depending on where the Reapers were heaviest, trying to navigate the team back to where Sheffler and Capt. Riley were fighting. He could hear echoes of combat and more gunfire elsewhere in the facility. He just had to get there.
It was impossible to tell whether the Reapers were aware of the small team, or if those they ended up fighting simply tripped over them en route to wherever Sheffler was.
"How're you holding up, Siu?" Sheffler demanded over the radio.
"We're fine!" Siu answered, his own shotgun barking abruptly.
McVie suddenly screamed.
Kolyat turned, ready to fire, but stopped.
'Tell me something useful.'
Father smiled at him, benign, but knowing what he was really asking. 'Brush your teeth at least twice daily.'
'I meant something useful,' he complained, pinning Father with an aggrieved eye.
Father sighed, looking out the window, fingers toying with his coffee. 'If I hope you never have to use it, how can it be useful?'
'You never know. Maybe it will be.'
Another sigh, a sip from the cup. 'If you need to kill a man from behind, and you are using a knife, slip the knife in where skull and neck join. It's vulnerable on all species—even krogan, though their bulk and humps make it less effective. Just like this.' A finger appeared on his neck, marking the place. 'Grab by the face, but watch the teeth, and sink the knife in as far as you can, as hard as you can. People don't get up from such an attack.' Another sip from his coffee. 'I hope you never need to use it.'
It wasn't the only such hint or trick he'd wormed out of his father, but it came back clearly to Kolyat. It took a moment to force himself not to simply drop his shotgun before he drew his combat knife and leapt forward.
McVie le tout an 'oof!' as Kolyat's added weight knocked the wind out of him. One hand found the Marauder's face, the other hand slid the knife cleanly into the neck near the skull. The Reaper went limp, allowing Kolyat to turn it away from his teammate, though with difficulty.
It was something he had discovered that no one ever told him: dead bodies weighed more, or seemed to, than living ones. And he decided that he used the term 'living' very loosely when it came to Reapers.
Kolyat swapped his knife for his shotgun again, turning to find Siu looking pale and pasty, with no more Reapers encroaching on their position.
"Not bad, kid," McVie coughed, getting to his feet. Kolyat suspected he would have ugly bruises from the Marauder's attempt to throttle him.
Siu hurried over to the nearest open display, fiddled with it, and nodded. "I've locked the system," he announced as the red display flashed green, then turned blue. It'll require passcodes for anyone to unlock the physical system."
"And if you don't unlock it, no one will," McVie finished, nodded.
"Yeah. But I need to get to the core—it'd be best to lock that manually—"
Kolyat heard the scuffing sound, turned sharply and let off a blast of shot. Another Reaper, having staggered out of some unseen pathway amidst the torturous pipes and cables of the reactor, hit the ground with a squelch. "Then we should—"
A loud roaring sound, something massive, came from somewhere nearby.
Siu sighed resignedly. "I knew they'd leave a heavy unit somewhere."
McVie took his shield module off, then clipped it to Kolyat's web gear. "Listen, you get that big bruiser's attention," he said briskly. "And you lure its ass back here. A couple of grenades where it counts, and it won't be fouling up anyone else's plans."
"Give me one, in case I can get close," Kolyat said, sounding much more confident than he felt.
McVie grinned broadly, handing over two frag grenades.
Once he had them, he took off at a sprint, in the general direction of the sound, checking the shield module's settings to make sure it would take most of the impending blast.
Kolyat slowed down as he began to differentiate the sounds of different sized feet. He stopped, peering around a corner, spotting the big brute surrounded by smaller ground units, seemingly assembled to prevent anyone from locking down the core.
It had a turian head on a snaky neck, making the mouth—where he had hoped to shove the grenade—an improbable target.
He took a slow breath, uttering a prayer to Amonkira, Lord of Hunters, then stepped out. He pulled the pin nonchalantly—or so he hoped—and threw it into the hulk's group. If that didn't get its attention, nothing would.
