Chapter 8

They Should Have Listened

The sky was beginning to grow dim from all the smoke that rose from the crumbled, flaming remains of buildings all over the city. Explosions were near constant now as the reapers made their way further inward, crimson light of their powerful lasers reflecting off of windows before shattering them violently. More than just the massive walking ships themselves had joined in the unrelenting annihilation; huge long-necked, six-legged Harvesters, completely transformed by reaper technology, were flying in and acting as shock troop drop shuttles and flaming projectiles were shooting down through the clouds to land on or in buildings and terrain alike to release ground troops. The more of these projectiles that hit the ground, the more small arms fire could be heard echoing throughout the city.

The convoy was nearly upon the western checkpoint and they kept speed. The gates were up and whoever was maintaining watch was no longer there so they simply drove right through into the city's outer limits. The chaotic ambiance of combat seemed distant here, most of the noise reduced to heavily reverberated echoes and dull thuds. The tall tops of the reapers could be seen from almost anywhere in the city, but most of the ground fighting was further in.

"Damnit!" Madeen yelled as she slammed a fist down onto her thigh armor. "Are those geth ships? What the hell do they want with Taetrus?"

"Maybe they followed the quarians here!" shouted one of the nine other turians further down.

"The quarians have nothing to do with this," Senik shouted back. "They just have very bad timing." He eyed Kevin as if he knew that the human knew what was going on. "You called them reapers?"

Kevin nodded, still half-dazed as he stared out at the buildings flying by. "Yeah. Reapers. Those are the machines that first human Spectre, Commander Shepard, tried to warn the galaxy about, if I recall. I've run into one of these things before."

"You've run into one? And lived?" some other turian asked.

"The scenario was completely different," Kevin replied. It wasn't on a rampage through a city like these are, and the team I was with managed to pull off some extremely ballsy commando work."

"What happened to the reaper?" Madeen asked.

Kevin looked off to the side. "We managed to kill it, but like I said, the situation isn't the same. I highly doubt we'll be able to pull that off a second time."

"And the team?" Senik asked.

Kevin paused for a brief moment before looking to Senik. "Dead. Every last one of them."

Several turians looked to one another, and a turian beyond Madeen spoke the single word that summed up their feelings. "Shit… But that makes you the only living being to kill one of those things, though."

"Not the only one," Kevin replied. "Didn't that Shepard kill the one called Sovereign? There was a lot of work that went into warning people of that thing."

"Shepard wasn't the only one," Senik replied. "There was a turian that recently returned to active duty, one Garrus Vakarian, with similar dire warnings. I believe he was one of Shepard's companions previously, so it would make sense. Took on a specialist leader role in attempts to get everything ready for their arrival." He turned to look forward, eyeing the tip of the nearest reaper over the tops of the urban setting around them. "I was pulled back to active duty under these pretenses, but the Hierarchy hardly seemed motivated by his plans of action, practically granting him authority simply to shut him up."

"Maybe they should have listened," Kevin noted.

The AHV convoy came to a sudden halt. Ahead was a building that had crumbled and fallen into the road, making it impassable to the vehicles. The pilot flicked his head at the rubble. "Damn, I didn't think we were that close."

Senik looked around for a moment. "We're not. This isn't a reaper's work. Find a way around, our immediate objective is the new Radiatum. Haekas, we need some better eyes on these roads. Do we have anything in the air?"

Haekas, one AHV over, had his omni-tool open and was scanning a bunch of intel. "The universal jamming is making any sort of communication impossible, but there were confirmed reports of two squadrons of scrambled fighters before jamming took place. If there's anything in the air that can give us a scan, it's them."

The AHVs began to move again, pulling a U-turn to find another route around the rubble. The buildings they had been funneling through were packed tightly together everywhere, but here they weren't any taller than four stories. Residential and commercial buildings alike shared the familiar angular design of most turian architecture, but all life seemed to have fled. Either the residents were taking shelter somewhere or had picked up their guns and moved off to where the fighting was.

Senik held on to the rail handles, face serious but blank as ever. He looked over to the other AHV as they swerved through the road to spot Haekas and shout his next orders. "See if you can manage any ad-hoc local comms. We need to find out where the infantry are, and we'll need to keep comms up within the legion if shit hits the fan."

"Yes, kebalim!" came Haekas's reply before his AHV fell back to get in line.

"What are we going to do about those… huge fucking things destroying the city?" Madeen asked her leader.

"Nothing," Senik said flatly. "Our objective is to cut a swath to the new Radiatum and secure the commander. Taetrus infantry and colonial forces can handle them."

Madeen half stood up, fists clenched. "Colonial forces are trying to handle them! They need our support!"

Corvallus gave Madeen a stern look and nothing more. This was a look that could make armor corrode right off one's body. Madeen grit her teeth and settled back into her seat, a mixture of worry and fury plain on her face.

"We can't divert any support to the colonial infantry until we've secured the parliamentary building. Anything else will slow us down." He looked skyward, browplates firmly pressed together. "Where the hell is the response fleet…?"

Suddenly, the sound of shots ricocheting off of the armored sides of the AHVs snapped through the air, causing everyone to duck reflexively and pull out their weapons. The pilot swerved defensively, then called it out. "AHV-1 taking fire, south side! Raising armor!"

Kevin felt the side he was holding onto vibrate and whir, and the secondary armor plating on rails he'd noticed earlier slid upwards until he could only see through the dips between the trapezoidal crenellations. The seats sank into the floor as well, giving every person on the bed of the AHV a place to stand and fire or take cover. Everything locked into place and the cabalists around him took up defensive positions, ready and waiting on the kebalim's orders. Kevin reached for his Phalanx and held it up as well as he backed into a place where the armor plates provided cover.

Over the newly connected ad-hoc comms, the other vehicles were calling out their situations as well.

"AHV-3 taking fire, west side!"

"AHV-2 taking fire, south side!"

AHV-4 taking fire, south and east sides!"

The kebalim pulled out his M-4 Shuriken and fired a few burst rounds off into a nearby collapsed alleyway. "Haekas, where are my roads?"

"Just got some comms chatter from one of the Aerospace Control squadrons. They're moving in and said they'd get a scan for us. Should be up momentarily."

Within the minute, Senik's omni-tool lit up with the data that was streaming in and six fighters in formation blazed by overhead. He transferred the data to the vehicle's map display for the pilot and pointed. "There. That street should be wide enough for us to get through and it puts us at a crossroad that leads straight to the objective."

The pilot nodded and made a sharp turn to make it into a street before he passed it. The other three vehicles did likewise and sped to keep up. Almost immediately after turning down that street, however, they started picking up more incoming fire. Red-tracing projectiles whizzed by their heads and bounced off of the armor with deafening clanks, once more causing everyone to press into their cover.

"What are those things?" shouted one of the other female turians.

"Eyes on!" shouted a male turian at the back. "Forty-five degrees! Six hostiles approaching the road!"

The kebalim and all the turians on the right side of the vehicle leaned out of cover to risk a look. Kevin had to move half-way to the opposite side to get a look, along with several others, and managed to spot the squad approaching the road. The beings appeared very bulbous, as if they were inflated and about to burst. Glowing parts could be seen even in the smoky daylight, and their right arm was fused with the tech that had to be their weapon. They were hideous amalgamations of tech and organic parts with the heavily morphed faces of batarians, and Kevin recognized the signature styles immediately.

"I say again, what are those things?"

Madeen backed into her spot on the left side of the vehicle. "They're fucking ugly, Tauria, that's what they are!"

Kevin backed up as well the moment the turians on the right side slid back into cover. "They were batarians. They've been pumped full of reaper tech! They're just mindless walking weapons for the reapers now!"

"That's all I needed to know," Senik noted with a nod and he opened ad-hoc comms. "Second Sphelix Legion, engage hostiles wherever spotted."

A quick round of "Yes kebalim!" filled the comms.

More shots rang out and bounced off of the armor of the AHV, but this time, turians shot back. Stomach-churning screeches filled the air as the hostiles took hits, some falling dead or shut down from damage. Kevin quickly noticed that whenever one fell and the others around it were left alone for a few seconds, they moved in to consume the fallen body ravenously.

"Kebalim!" Kevin shouted and pointed towards the gruesome event.

"I see it," Senik replied as he fired off a few more shots at the feeding things that were quickly falling into the distance behind them.

Madeen swallowed hard. "Ugh! Spirits! They're eating their own?!"

"What the hell was that?" questioned Haekas. "Were they just cannibalizing their fallen? Why…?"

The question went on unanswered as no one had one to reply with. Senik looked at the pointed top of one of the nearest reapers again. "That's over a kilometer away. Why send ground infantry out this far?"

The answer to that became clear in an instant. Just before the convoy was about to reach the crossroad that would allow them to head straight through the city to their objective, the lower two levels of a six-story residential building blew out under it in a massive explosion that forced all AHVs to come to an immediate halt. Shrapnel and building parts dinged off of the armor plating and all, including the pilots, ducked low to avoid injury, most cursing loudly as they did so. The remaining four stories of the angular structure collapsed in a swirling torrent of dust, debris, and hot air right into the road they meant to travel on.

"Son of a bitch!" Kevin shouted when he got a look at the new barricade.

"Shit!" cursed Madeen. "Please let that building be empty…"

Senik stood upright and simply stared at the wreckage, face a mask as always. "They're cutting off avenues for ground support. Vehicles won't do us much good if we're just trying to get further into the city."

The AHV convoy arrayed itself in a circle, each vehicle pointed at the rear of the next. Senik leaned over towards Kevin's side with intent to address the entire legion, but more incoming fire cut him off and forced him to redirect his attention. Stranded in what was now a sort of cul-de-sac, the convoy was beginning to take fire from all directions. Reaper infantry were moving about in lower levels of several buildings all around them, shooting as they made line of sight with the convoy. The distance made their shots clumsy, though, and only a few threatened the legion and their charges.

That's when Senik went into full kebalim mode. He hopped off of the AHV on the inside of the circle to use all four for omni-directional cover and started shouting orders over the mounting audible chaos. "Shut the AHVs down, we'll use them for cover! Shield Squad, array out for wide barriers! Marksman Squad, target the hostiles up high! Artillery Squad, remote sweep at the base of those structures! All else, engage at will!"

"Permission to engage hostiles up close, kebalim!" shouted the female turian Madeen had previously called 'Tauria' as she hurdled over the side of the AHV.

"Denied, Mencius! This will be over soon enough, no need to endanger Vanguard Squad with needless CQC. Better idea, break cover, two to each side, and start flanking the hostiles. Flush them if necessary! Fall back if more show up. Artillery squad, focus the sweep straight ahead and cut off their cover options!"

"Yes kebalim!" shouted Artillery Squad as they positioned themselves to make their counterattack.

Tauria Mencius nodded and started calling out to the rest of her squad. "Jaws, Eyes, jump to the north buildings and start a flanking sweep! Volen, you're with me! We'll do the same on the south side! Foreit, Stay here and provide Artillery Squad with backup!"

A round of acknowledgements sounded the rest of Vanguard Squad's compliance and those called to move used their biotics to charge out of the safe circle and to the enemy's flanks in the blink of an eye. Kevin noticed that some names were translated while the rest remained as names. He wondered why, but decided he'd ask when they weren't being ambushed.

The soldiers in Shield Squad were the only ones to stay inside the AHVs, and they all moved into the front two to face the majority of the threat. From there they projected five large wall barriers that covered just about all one hundred and eighty degrees of incoming fire. The barriers were strong enough to deflect or stop nearly every shot, and anything that made it through had such little remaining velocity that they were no longer a threat. The cabalists hardly seemed to be putting effort into it.

Kevin spotted Maela and Liam, who were doing more ducking in cover than firing. Targold was to their left and shooting away happily into the rubble and hidden enemies, but his shotgun didn't have the range to be effective here. Telius was in the middle of the others returning fire with his M-5 Carnifex. Most of them had small arms, but heavy pistols and SMGs stood a better chance than shotguns. There were five turians clustered together with designated marksman rifles shooting upwards at an angle and picking off targets on the higher floors or roofs.

Kevin scooted over towards his friends so he could get a better idea of how they were doing. Targold, as he suspected, was grinning like a madman as he fired away, waiting just long enough for his shotgun to cool some before firing again to conserve thermal clips. Telius had disappeared amongst the cabalists. Maela looked half helpless and half pissed off. Liam had gone pale as milk.

"Liam, what are you doing!?" Kevin shouted at him over the sounds of combat.

"The bloody hell does it look like I'm doing?" the Irishman shouted back, covering his head as a few shots made it through the barriers. "I'm trying to not die!"

Kevin gestured towards the turians. "They don't need a coward, they need people to help!"

A small moment of fury broke through Liam's dismay. "In case you haven't noticed, boyo, I don't even have a gun!"

An M-3 Predator hit the ground beside Liam a few short moments after that, having been thrown by one of those in Marksman Squad. "Just give it back when you're done!" shouted the one who threw it.

Kevin raised his brows at Liam and nodded his head towards the pistol. "Now you do! Get up there!" He looked to Maela as he was pulling Liam out of his fetal position. "You too, woman! Return fire!"

She glared at Kevin for a while before she looked at the ground. "Fuck it!" she yelled as she stood and beckoned Marskman Squad for a pistol of her own. One noticed and tossed her a Phalanx similar to Kevin's but lacking in modifications. She spun around, laid her arms across a small outcropping from the nearest AHV, and started firing back at the same time as Liam.

Kevin moved back to his original spot and started doing likewise. The battle only seemed to last a few minutes after that; The combination of vanguards pushing in on the flanks and sweeping biotic explosions obliterating everything at the center didn't give the hostile forces anywhere to go but backward, and they didn't retreat even when they could. Any enemies higher than ground level were picked off by Marksman Squad. Less than ten minutes after they had come under attack, the battle was over and everyone was standing in a circle inside of the AHVs.

Senik was at the center and was walking in a very small circle with his arms crossed as he addressed the legion. "Listen up, Sphelix. The reaper forces are cutting off vehicular access at key points. We'll be continuing on foot. Pilots! You'll be providing transport for any children, wounded, and citizens that want out. Your priority is getting them out of the city to safe refuge. I'll need eight volunteers to go with the AHVs as fire support."

A number of turians stepped forward, definitely more than eight. Senik walked around, calling out names of those who would go. "Nolus Invidiun of Core Squad; as our primary mechanic and engineer, you'll be going to ensure the AHVs don't fail under fire. You'll be in charge of the AHV fireteam. The fireteam will consist of Espien Foreit, Naelar Takress, Shaleen Vaer, Relus Paliencar, Pliviss Thest, Naxys Pavar, and Eresh Ordixus."

Those called took another step forward and saluted. "Yes kebalim!"

Senik continued. "Mount up two per vehicle and search the city for those that need immediate transport out. Avoid confrontation if you can. Your primary objective is the people of Vallum, second is to remove hostiles. Are we clear?"

"Yes kebalim!" they shouted back with a little more enthusiasm. Immediately they all hopped onto an AHV with the pilots buckling into their seats and the engines roaring as they powered back up enough to leave the ground.

Senik saluted those about to leave. "What do we know, Sphelix?!"

"Power in the immaterial!" shouted back the legion. All at once the four vehicles sped away back the way they came to carry out their new orders.

Once they were off, Senik addressed the remaining portion and folded his hands behind his back to pace. "Our objective remains the same – reaching the new Radiatum and securing the commander. Keep an eye out for those quarians, they may have fled to get away from the fighting or have moved to avoid the reapers. Ready and form up by that collapsed building."

"Yes kebalim!" came the fervent salutes.

Next the turian leader flicked his hands at Liam, Maela, Targold, Telius, and Kevin, beckoning them to come closer. "Your timing is as bad as the quarians'. You'll have to come with us."

"What?!" Liam cried, horrified. "I'm not a soldier! I can't fight my way through the city against reapers!"

"Shut the fuck up, McRoilie! I'm not either!" Maela spat out, disgusted by his cowardice.

Liam turned to look behind him. "Let me go back to the ship, I can stay out of everyone's way there!"

Senik shook his head. "No. There are reaper forces behind us. If you four go by yourselves, you'll be overwhelmed and killed in minutes."

"Then let me go with the hovercraft! They can—"

Senik cut him off by grabbing the collar of Liam's armor with one hand and lifting him into the air so that they could be face-to-face. "Listen to me, you useless piece of shit. This city—no, this planet—is under reaper attack. There is nowhere you can run to that will keep you safe. I'm not having turians who need to be defending their families putting their lives on the line for your craven ass. I'm not having you slowing down my rescue teams, and I'm sure as hell not going to have you slowing me down."

Kevin took a couple steps closer as Senik pulled Liam off his feet, but kept quiet for now. Senik's right—we're all in this mess now. Liam needs to hear this.

"You have two options. You can man up and follow us with gun in hand, or I can shoot you now and save you the agony of being turned into a husk. I will not suffer laggards, do you understand?"

Liam appeared as though he'd just been killed and reborn as a ghost with how pale he'd just gotten and he looked to Kevin as if expecting to get an answer from him. When Kevin raised both brows and tilted his head toward the kebalim, Liam swallowed the lump in his throat, shut his eyes, and raised his borrowed pistol. "Alright… Alright, damnit! I'll go with you!"

Senik shot a breath of air out through his nose into Liam's face and set him back on the ground before turning to face the others. "And you three?" he asked, clearly not worried about Telius's disposition.

Targold took a step forward and ejected a thermal clip from his shotgun. "Been waiting for a decent fight. Sick of all this waiting around. Just point me at who to kill."

Maela stepped forward as well, though not with as much confidence as the krogan. "I'm in, but I'll need a better gun than this piss-shooter."

Kevin stepped forward as well. "Let's make them regret following me here."

Senik nodded and started walking towards the group of waiting turians. "Listen up, Sphelix. These five will be a temporary attachment for the remainder of this operation. I will be inserting them into squads to keep them in line with our modes of strategy." He quickly turned to Kevin and the others as they stopped just in front of the rest of Sphelix Legion. "Tell them your names."

"Kevin Folner."

"Urdnot Targold."

"Maela T'Vess."

"L-Liam McRoilie."

Senik crossed his arms again and stared at the four of them for a moment. "Kevin, you'll be replacing Nolus in Core Squad. Your budding use of biotics will be useful there. Targold. I assume you lack biotics, so I'll fit you into Heavy Squad to facilitate their combat. I trust you like big weapons and big explosions."

Targold laughed deeply and slammed his fists together. "Perfect."

"Maela, how are your biotic barriers?"

"About as good as any other asari's."

Senik nodded. "Good. I lost two out of Shield Squad to the AHV fireteams, I'd like you to integrate with them. Liam." Senik paused as he looked to the less-than-confident Irishman. "You'll also join Shield Squad. They don't take the frontlines as much, so you'll be less of a burden there. Telius, you'll also provide fire support with Shield Squad. You're our only HVI, and I don't want you up front. Squads, call to your new attachments so they know who they'll be working with. Any objections? No? Good. Let's move out."

Each squad called to their new members and waved them over. When Kevin reached his group, the first thing he noticed was that he'd be working with Madeen. This will go swimmingly, he thought. Fortunately, she seemed more cordial now. Cordial enough to refrain from scowls and dagger-eyes, at least. As he stepped in to fill the gap in the small circle they'd formed, they started calling out their names to him from left to right so he'd know who was who.

The first on his left was another he recognized—a turian with sharp forest green facial markings. "Haekas Tolensen," he stated with a nod. "Core Squad Electronics Expert and Comms Engineer."

The second, one with curvy white markings, flicked his head towards Kevin. "Takrien Vaer. I'm called 'Nosedive' when Shaleen is around, due to the same last name. I'm the Legion's space vessel pilot when needed." He saw the obligatory question Kevin was going to ask and he answered for him. "Shaleen Vaer is my sister."

The third turian around the circle had blocky, dull orange markings that were very similar to the kebalim's. "Tycus Kalkerien. Core Squad primary combat medic."

The fourth, and last, to identify was the only female of Core Squad, and one Kevin already knew better than the kebalim himself. She turned her head to look away as she introduced herself; an over-the-top sign of no respect. "Madeen Arcellus. CQC expert."

Kevin nodded to the turian cabalists and Madeen signaled to Senik that they were good to move. A few seconds later, the kebalim used a hand gesture to tell them all to move out and follow him. Core Squad was the first behind Senik, followed by Vanguard Squad, Artillery Squad, Shield Squad, Marksman Squad, with Heavy Squad taking up the rear.

They moved into the partially crumbled three story building juxtaposed to the one that was previously detonated. Dust choked the air and light quickly grew scarce in the deeper portions, forcing them to use gun-mounted or omni-tool based lights. The ghastly music of carnage kilometers away grew muffled as they moved under the center of the broken structure, making for some very eerie atmosphere.

"How the hell are we going to beat those reapers? Tycus asked quietly as he and Kevin stepped long over a fallen piece of wall. "They were huge. Dreadnought-sized, I'd guess. We can't even get our own dreadnoughts in the atmosphere…"

"That's assuming any of the fleet is even here," Madeen muttered under her breath. "We've seen no sign of them so far, and Taetrus has been under fire for a couple hours now."

"Something tells me you can't just shoot a reaper to death," Haekas added in as he pushed a large fallen pillar out of the way. "Not without a whole fleet. Remember the one at the Citadel?"

"We all remember the Citadel," Senik said without looking back to them. His deep, flanged voice reverberated off of the hard walls so many times it sounded like he'd stirred up several beehives. "And what I remember most is that the reaper died."

"Sovereign obliterated most of that fl—" Kevin started to say before Senik cut him off with a curt gesture.

The kebalim was curling around a corner, looking up a mangled flight of stairs. "Marksman Squad. Take some high ground and get a good look of the street ahead. I want enemy strength assessments."

"Yes kebalim!" they responded with quiet urgency, and the squad moved up beyond the others to head up the stairs.

"Watch your step up there," Madeen called out. "This building looks ready to topple any minute."

"Core squad, secure the forward entrances." Senik threw a full-handed point towards the direction he meant for them to scout.

They all nodded and moved forward at once. The street-facing side of the building had fallen apart due to the stress of partially falling over from the blast next door, and little more than support beams that were once inside the walls remained. One by one, they quickly moved up and took cover behind the bent beams.

"Forward entrance secure," Madeen radioed back to their leader.

"Persus here," called in one of the Marksmen. "It's hard to get a full assessment of the further reaches of the street, but at present, we can only spot one hostile patrol. Squad strength. They appear to move without any sensible formation. We should be able to move across the street without drawing any attention once these hostiles pass by."

"Come on back, Marksman Squad. We're moving in thirty."

"Understood."

Kevin's eyes followed the cannibalistic batarian-reaper hybrids as they shuffled way. "You'd think there'd be thicker resistance out here," Kevin mentioned. "How many of those little patrols did we pass just getting here?"

"Two or three," Tycus replied. "I agree. Maybe they only have one wave of forward troops?"

"I wouldn't get too comfy," Madeen said sharply as she spotted Senik and the other squads approaching from behind. "They're probably all over these buildings just like we are."

Just then, yelling and small arms fire began to sound off from the building across street—right where they were planning on heading. There were multiple participants on both sides, if the noise could be believed, and muzzle flashes could be seen through the windows of the bottom floor.

"We need to move!" Madeen shouted and she stood, ready to sprint ahead. Several other turians made ready as well, faces dark.

Senik put a hand on Madeen's shoulder and pushed her back to her knees, then quickly signaled for the others to stay down. "Wait."

Maela came up beside Kevin and knelt beside him. "Kevin, what's going on?"

"Sounds like a firefight across the street. I think we were just about to head that way."

The patrol that had passed them by earlier hand returned and was running towards the firefight with the most awkward gait Kevin had ever seen. The firefight itself seemed to have started moving to the left, away from the street. They were losing ground.

"Damnit, we need to get over there!" Maela said through grit teeth, using everything she had to keep her voice down.

Senik threw his arm out in front of Maela to prevent her from getting up. "We can't save them right now. Everyone get down."

The majority of the Legion looked instantly troubled at that assessment, but the kebalim's reasoning was soon made clear. Just seconds before the second group of cannibals were about to enter the building, the bottom two floors ignited in an explosion that caused the entire building to begin to collapse. The group of cannibals outside were vaporized then buried, and another major street became impassable with rubble.

The heat from the blast was so intense that anyone out of cover that to shield their faces, and debris came flying across the road. Kevin grabbed Maela by the arm and yanked her over behind him and the support beam to keep her from getting lethally smacked by a window shard or a brick or a metal beam. She reflexively buried her face into his chest armor and clutched at his arm.

It was a good thing he moved her. A large chunk of a blown-out support flew by right where Maela was kneeling and punched through two more walls before it came to a stop. Several others must have had similar close calls, judging by the short, startled cries a few other turians let out. Most of them took hits to their kinetic barriers as well as smaller pieces were deflected.

Kevin continued to hold onto Maela as he shook his head to try to shove off the suppressive force of the explosion. Ears ringing even inside the suit, he slowly stood upright to ensure he hadn't been buried, and he turned to look at what was the street. Dust obscured everything. As his hearing returned to him, he found that everyone without a helmet was coughing from the dust-laden air. Worse, he heard some very ominous creaks coming from above.

Kevin was the only one wearing a helmet, so he was spared most of the concussive disorientation the rest were feeling. Knowing he was the only one aware, he leaned over to smack Senik on the shoulder. When he had the turian's attention, he pointed up and made some generic gestures to simulate the building coming down.

Senik's eyes opened a little wider and he stood rather steadily despite the shell shock he had to endure. "Damnit… Sphelix, move it! Move it now! Across the street, go go go!"

The cabal legion was unusually sluggish in getting a move on, and this sent red flags up everywhere in Kevin's mind. He looked up and saw cracks starting to form on the floor above, and the support beams next to them were bending with alarming speed. He hauled Maela up to her feet and placed his hands on the sides of her cheeks. "Maela! Maela, can you hear me?"

She opened her eyes, quite dazed, but nodded.

"Good! I need you to help me make a solid barrier right above us right now!" The air around him began to shimmer from the dark energy he was gathering.

Maela sort of squinted at him as though he had the face of a klixen. Kevin took her by the shoulders and shook her until she snapped out of it.

"What the fuck are you doing Fol—"

"Maela! High density barrier above us with me, now!"

The asari looked to the ceiling with moderate disinterest until she saw the cracks and bending supports. "Oh fuck me! Kevin, a barrier's not—"

"Just do it, Maela!" he yelled as he let her go and looked up, throwing both hands skyward to push out his strongest barrier at the ceiling. His eyes crush shut as the strain of keeping the barrier in place against the weight of the crumbling building threatens to overwhelm him. Damnit… Too much surface area. This is nothing like in that cave…

Maela bites her bottom lip in hesitation, but after seeing Kevin struggle to keep things in place, she finds her resolve and charges her own dark energy to help him. "Shit… shit… shit…"

The members of Sphelix Legion made their way to their feet and came to. Hearing Senik's orders and seeing the barriers holding death at bay sobered them up right quick, and everyone hurdled over the remainder of the broken wall to make their way out without a word. Senik picked up Kevin so he wouldn't have to break concentration to run, and Targold did the same for Maela before both vaulted out as well.

"All clear!" Senik told the two barrier holders as they were carried across the street to the newly laid and still settling rubble.

Kevin and Maela both let their barriers drop mid-way across the street with long, heavy breaths. Immediately the entire side of the building came crashing down to fill the air with more dust. Feet back on the ground on the far side and panting slightly from the effort, Kevin and Maela look at each other, then to the rest of the Legion. It was plain on the faces of all the members of Sphelix Legion that they know what just happened, and nods of respect moved across the group like a wave.

"Damnit, Folner," Targold cursed lighthartedly as he stood looming over Maela. "I can only owe you my life so many damn times before I start getting pissed off about it."

"Just promise me you'll show me those female camps on Tuchanka one day and we're solid," he said with a laugh.

Targold grinned and slapped Kevin on the back. "Haaaaah. Consider it done, kid."

"On behalf of the Second Sphelix Legion," Senik said toward Kevin and Maela with a flawless salute, "well done. It will not be forgotten." His respectful demeanor vanished almost instantly. Kebalim mode was back. "Now move all your sorry asses across to the next interior before we lose more paths to the reaper troops. Every second we waste is a second more turians are getting slaughtered! Go!"

Sufficiently recovered from their close call with the blast, everyone was back to full swing and moving swiftly across the street from the blown building to what was left of some kind of three-story marketplace. The blast caused moderate damage to the lower levels, but it was still structurally sound for the nonce.

Senik stopped at the entrance to the building and signaled for everyone to continue inside. "We'll move through here to the other side. The alleyways are tight, but they're more concealed and won't force us to engage every enemy within five kilometers."

With Core Squad on point again, they weaved their way through the disorder of overturned displays of food and other merchandise on their way towards the back of the store. Halfway there, however, the noise of some shifting packages caused Core Squad to stop, and all others behind them. With Senik bringing up the rear, Madeen took charge and issued silent orders for Core squad to split and flank the source of the noise.

Kevin went with Takrien around the right side, pausing to wait for the other half to get to the other side of the long counter. At once, all five of them sprang out of cover to get eyes on their target. The problem was that their targets were aiming back.

"Friendlies!" shouted Madeen, and all lowered their weapons at once, including the four armed citizens—two male and two female—that were hiding behind the counter.

"Spirits, it's the military," said one of the males as the citizens stood. All four of them were in civilian clothing and without kinetic barriers or a speck of armor.

Senik came up through the line of cabalists, who'd all moved to get a look at what was going on, to get a look for himself at what was holding up the line. When he saw the citizens and their Phaeston rifles, he relaxed his stance a bit. "Kebalim Senik Corvallus of the Second Sphelix Legion. Are there more of you here?"

One of the females sighed and nodded before reaching under the counter to flick her hand at its edge. "Vel, Rast, come out."

From underneath the counter crawled two young turian boys that Kevin placed at no older than eight each. They were each holding a real Predator pistol, but it was clear they had been taught well on handling weapons and had no fingers anywhere near the trigger. They both looked up to the cabalist soldiers with big watery eyes.

"Ahhhh shit," Haekas cursed under his breath.

"A cabal legion, huh?" said the second male. "Was that you all just now? That blast almost took this building down."

Senik said nothing, clearly knowing that Madeen would have tried to bowl over him anyways.

She was perfectly content to do just that, of course. "No, the reapers are sending out forward troops to level buildings and make movement as close to impossible as they can."

"So that's what's going on… Reapers, even? I thought that was a myth…" said the same female as before, grimacing towards the first of the two males. Kevin assumed they were mates.

The first male took a step forward and gestured towards each of the armed citizens in turn, starting with the female Kevin took for his mate and ending with the children. "I'm Karus, and this is my mate Freina. That's Corsik and his mate, Teria. Those two are Velus and Rastex, our sons respectively."

"What was your objective?" Senik asked quickly.

Corsik was the one to answer. "We were originally heading for the outskirts of the city hoping to move the children somewhere safe before trying to attach to colonial forces responding to the attack. When we started hearing explosions further out in the city, we assessed that we'd not moved fast enough and the enemy overtook us. We confirmed this when we spotted patrols of… of something moving through the streets. Soon after we started bunkering down here, a pair of Colonial scouts passed through and told us of a relief and evacuation point half a kilometer from here to the northeast. In the rebuilt Kaliar Apartments complex, I think."

Teria nodded. "We were just preparing to move out when that explosion next door made us take cover again for the sake of the children."

Senik brought up his omni-tool. "Northeast? That's closer to the fighting. I have AHVs on standby for moving citizens out of the theatre of battle. The nearby threat has been neutralized; you should be safe to wait for extraction."

The four citizens looked amongst each other, then to Karus as if expecting him to make their intent known. Karus drew in a breath as he looked back to Senik. "With respect, kebalim, we would rather that we made it to the relief point at Kaliar."

Corsik nodded to support his Karus's request. "With all due respect, kebalim, we can do more good for Vallum if we link up with Colonial squads. The children can stay in the relief building until some form of evacuation can get them out safely."

Senik stared at the six citizens for a short while before Kevin stepped up right behind him to lean in and quietly make a point. "Having them at the evac point would make far more efficient use of your AHV rescue teams. More people can be taken out of the city in one swing that way." He had to admit, these four carried themselves like soldiers; they merely lacked equipment. Even still, he prepared himself for the inevitable onslaught of counterarguments and reasons why they shouldn't.

Instead, Senik knelt down and waved the two kids over. "How do you boys feel about coming with us to the evac point?" The look of relief on the four adult citizens was palpable.

Rast looked up to Senik with big, steel-flecked hazel eyes. "Mom says cabal turians aren't like other turians. You're sketchy."

Teria buried her face against the backside of her right wrist—the turian equivalent of a facepalm. It was so profound that the clack of smacking face and arm plates actually reverberated around the room. Everyone else in the held their breath as Senik stared back at the child.

"I don't think so, though," Rast continued. "You look just like strong military turians to me."

"Why do you have a stupid quarian with you?" Vel asked, face contorted with confusion and revulsion.

Kevin looked to Karus and Freina, more amused than insulted. "I'm fighting those ugly monsters just like you are, kid," Kevin said flatly. "So is that krogan, that asari, and that human back there."

"They're not monsters," Rast corrected. "Dad says they're reapers."

"Don't be stupid, Rast. Reapers aren't real!" Vel countered.

"They're very real," Senik interjected. "And your moms and dads need you two to be model turian citizens and listen to what they say. It's going to get very dangerous very fast and they don't want you left behind or hurt. Understand?"

The two boys look up at Senik as he gave their fringes an uncle-style playful tug. "We'll fight the reapers too!" Rast exclaims, raising his Predator high.

"No you won't," said Corsik as he pushed the boy's arms down to lower the pistol. "You're going to do as we say and stay of sight when reapers are around. Kebalim Corvallus and his team will help us get rid of them."

"Then why did you give us pistols? I want to shoot some freaks!" Vel complained.

Freina slapped Vel on the side of the head. "What did I tell you about eagerness and fighting?" she scolded.

Vel looked to the ground, slumped. "Good soldiers check their ambition," he said with disinterested practice.

One of the female turians from Shield Squad came pushing up to the front. "Kebalim, we've got to get moving. Three more reaper patrols are making their way up the street behind us. There were… new ones."

"New ones, Valina?" Tycus inquired.

"Yeah they're… turian. Or were, at least." If turians could grow pale, Kevin was certain she would have been just by the look on her face. "They have Phaestons."

Senik nodded and gestured for everyone to get moving and looked to the citizens. "You six will stay at the center of our group." He then pointed to the adults. "You four will be expected to provide firing support. What does the Kaliar apartment complex look like? We'll need to get a visual on the structure."

Corsik turned to Senik. "Rectangular, tallest of several buildings like it around a flat, square plaza. Like I said, about half a kilometer to the northeast of here."

Senik nodded and looked down to the children. "Rast, Vel, do not engage enemy forces unless explicitly told to do so. Everyone, move out!"

Everyone nodded and Senik lead everyone in the direction they had planned on. Once outside the back of the building, the sounds of combat became clear and unnervingly crisp again. Ground forces were clashing all around now, and the sounds of gunfire were much closer than they were before they entered the market. The sunlight was almost completely obscured by smoke now, painting the entire city in a most eerie, threatening twilight.

Their hopes of remaining undetected didn't last long, however. Not too far down the second alleyway, blown buildings and broken walls forced them to climb over rubble or be forced to backtrack all the way to the market building.

Senik stopped just before the apex of the pile of dirt, debris, and broken bricks that he'd decided to climb to get out of the dead end and made a gesture that Kevin didn't recognize. Within seconds, Marksman Squad filed up front and arrayed themselves in a compact semi-circle at the base of the pile. Senik pointed to his eyes, then swiped an open palm in a wide arc in front of him.

The turians nodded and climbed the rubble. At the top, two went prone and propped their guns up over the top of the apex, looking out ahead. The other two knelt right behind them and looked in the opposite direction. One was gone, which Kevin assumed was because he or she had joined the AHV rescue teams. All four began scanning the urban battlegrounds around them with their scopes and conversing quietly amongst themselves as they did so. This continued for about a minute before they all climbed down.

The only female turian of Marksman squad stepped forward to make their report. Kevin found it amusing that the females were the ones always making reports, as it was largely their own choice.

"The area ahead is very open; lots of buildings have been leveled around here. Once we hit the next building line we'll have patchwork cover to the apartments if things stay the way they are now. Maybe a line of structures at best." She pointed a hand out in the direction of the Kaliar complex, which was as close to northeast as could be. "South of us is pretty quiet, but that takes us away from the objective. There's fighting everywhere, but the highest concentrations of conflict are north of our position. East looks messy as hell, but it's our best chance of getting to cover before getting shot at."

"Enemy movements?" Senik asked.

"All the reapers are still a significant distance from us as far as I could tell. We didn't pick up any troop movements visually, but thermals are finding small groups all over the rubble and some in the buildings multiple floors up. There's a high chance we'll be spotted once we clear this hill."

"Then we'll be quick and quiet about it. Shield Squad, I want barriers on those citizens at all times. You primary objective is to keep them from taking fire."

"Yes kebalim!"

"Marksman Squad, cover our movements across to the building line. Alert us if anything moves."

"Yes kebalim!"

"Let's move."

Once more the train began to move. Slowly at first—climbing the hill of fallen buildings was a treacherous task at best, and it would be all too easy to twist an ankle, break a limb, or both. The view up top showed just what Marksman Squad meant when they mentioned that it was very open. To their left was a collection of flat fields, probably to host some kind of turian sporting events. The buildings in the distance were at least six stories tall and were dotted all around their base with piles of rubble similar to the one they were standing on, but they had to be three hundred or more meters away. Ahead was a road several meters wide and a big sidewalk just in front of the buildings they meant to cross to. Right was more buildings and roads, but that only led back to the area they were crossing through before.

What Marksman squad didn't mention was hail of flaming troop pods bursting through the clouds and descending on the entire city, but by now it was a given.

The descent to the ground on the other side of the pile was similar in speed to their climb, and all but the Marksman Squad started down the moment they crested the hill. With half the legion still climbing down, Senik and Core Squad started across the dangerously open road.

That's when the call came from Marksman Squad up high.

"Kebalim! Multiple hostiles encroaching on your position from across the street! Thermals are picking up… twelve separate signatures!"

"Damnit," cursed Senik. "Vanguards!"

"On it!" shouted Tauria as her and three others used their biotics to charge across the open gap. They arrayed themselves at the building wall for cover and looked through the windows. "Confirmed! Enemy movement dead ahead!"

"Stall them," was his simple order. "Everyone else, get your asses over there!"

"Yes kebalim!" the vanguards shouted back as they punched out the shards of glass still clinging to the window frames and started firing inside. Within seconds, shots were coming out as well, many of which just missed a few of the people crossing the open street.

The sound of fresh gunfire was like a beacon, and Kevin knew it. As he and the front of the legion ran for the far side, he looked back to see several, including Liam and Maela, struggling to hurry down. Kevin stopped in the middle of the street and had intended on going back to help them down, but Targold picked him up by the left arm with one hand and carried him across the rest of the way.

"Keep moving! Shield Squad will handle it!"

"Let me go, Targold!"

"I knew you were a crazy bastard, but this is a whole new level for you, kid. We're gonna be the target of every enemy gun in the area any second. You don't wanna be out there when that shit hits the fan." He finally let go of Kevin when they were just behind Vanguard Squad.

"I don't want them out there when it happens either," Kevin spat as he flicked his arm to right the armor that had shifted during his short airborne journey.

"They're not as stupid as you. They'll get out of the way when it starts to rain."

Just as Targold was finishing his sentence, the storm they were expecting began. Little by little, hostiles all over the distant buildings and rubble began to add their shots to a steadily increasing barrage of fire. They weren't content to just sit and shoot from cover, either. Any reaper troops on the ground quickly started off after the legion as they were crossing and were closing fast.

"Marksman Squad, keep them off our backs until we can clear this structure," Senik ordered.

"Yes kebalim!" they replied and all shifted to look across the open field where a number of cannibals were awkwardly running across. Blam blam went the sound of DMR fire as the squad began to stop the approaching troops with unerring precision. "More reaperized turians are on their way with the cannibal things, kebalim!" someone in Marksman Squad had reported.

Maela, the citizens, and the others finally made it across the street as Shield Squad used their biotics to shield their crossing. Velus and Rastex moved as close to their parents as they could, using them as cover like they were taught. The asari left Liam and Shield Squad behind to run right up to Kevin, gun raised. "I fucking hate war!"

Targold laughed at her. "Hah! Little Blue's got no stomach for a little gunfire! Best to puke it up now, then, T'Vess. We've barely even gotten started here."

Maela turned to glare at the krogan. "You son of a bitch. Do you know wh—"

"He's right, Maela." Kevin said as he quickly moved to the edge of the building to start firing into it. "Kebalim, there's too much cover in there! They're playing defensively in order to keep us from moving through!"

"Grenades?" asked one of the Heavy Squad turians as he pulled one of many grenades from the double bandolier crisscrossed over his chest.

"No grenades, Tenrek. We don't want to risk setting off any explosives they might have brought in." Senik stood up straight and cracked his knuckles. "I'll handle this. Everyone, watch your fire. I'm going in."

"What?" Maela said in disbelief. "He's fucking crazy! There's like eight of those things in there just waiting to make a meal out of him!"

Without another word, Senik leapt sideways and tucked into an airborne somersault aimed at one of the windows, but he was way, way too early with his jump. He's going to fall flat on his face before even reaching the window at that trajectory... In less than a blink of the eye, however, the leaping turian was through the window and landing on his feet inside the building. Kevin's eyes went wide as he watched the kebalim practically teleport through. Once inside, this strange phenomenon happened several times within the span of a couple seconds as he ran, moving so incredibly fast that Kevin lost track of him more than once. It was as if he was just popping out of existence for the tiniest fraction of a second and appearing about two meters away to continue on as if nothing happened.

What followed was difficult to see due to the walls and other pieces of internal structure the reaper troops were using for cover. Despite lack of visibility, though, what happened was unmistakable: ruthlessly efficient slaughter. Kevin never knew how many enemies were lurking about inside the building, but he did count how many seconds they lasted, and that was about fifteen. A swift and constant combination of biotics, Shuriken fire, thuds from melee impact, and biotic explosions turned the frustrating wall of monstrous reaperized troops into little more than corpses and giblets.

Once they had all been sufficiently obliterated, Senik stepped back into view a little further inside. Somehow, he didn't have a speck of blood or sinew on him anywhere. He flicked his head to indicate that it was time to go. "Clear, let's move up," he ordered as he stood aside to let his legion move forward. "Marksman Squad, pack it up. We're leaving."

As Kevin moved with his squad, he slowed down by Senik to ask him, "How the he—"

"Ask me later. We're busy right now."

Kevin had little choice but to nod and continue on with his squad. As they moved through the building, Kevin counted at least six actual corpses amongst those that Senik took out. If there were more, they weren't identifiable anymore. "Damn. What a mess."

"The kebalim doesn't hold back when he gets involved," Madeen mentioned with a hint of admiration in her voice as she took aim down a dark hallway. "This isn't the first time we've seen him clear out an entire group of entrenched enemies in a few seconds with nothing but biotics and his Shuriken."

"Why doesn't he fight like that all the time?" Kevin asked as he bent down to pick up a Phaeston from one of the reaperized turians. The weight felt good in his hands, and the fact that it was built for three fingers meant the world in terms of comfort of finger placement. He put his Phalanx away in favor of the rifle.

"It's demanding as hell," Haekas said as he likewise picked up a Phaeston from a fallen enemy and holstered his SMG on his hip. "Most of us have been training to do that for months and we still can't clear out a room with half as much efficiency."

"Madeen's the only one of us who can pull it off," said Takrien, "and even she has to worry about passing out. The fact that the kebalim can do it without even having to take a breather afterwards speaks volumes."

Halfway through the powerless residential building, Kevin and Core Squad came barrel to barrel with another group of turians. By the markings on their armor, which were very similar to the sigils used on Taetrus Aerospace Control vessels, Kevin identified them as colonial infantry. They were bloody and probably had already seen a few skirmishes across the city. They were also one short of a full squad.

"Friendlies!" one of the colonials called out as he lowered his Phaeston. He was out of breath. "Sergeant Jorus of the seventy-third Taetrus Colonial Infantry. Did you all handle those hostiles that just moved through here?"

Madeen stepped forward. "Yes. What's the situation ahead?"

Jorus turned half-way to look at the rest of his squad. "Take a breather." The squadmembers nodded and limped to either side of the hall they had come from to sit down on anything available to sit on. Looking back to Madeen, he said, "It's bad. Hostiles are wiping our squads out all over the city and we can't seem to retake any ground. Those huge… things annihilate anything they come across, so we've been spreading the word to maneuver out of their path when trying to move through the city."

Senik finally spoke up. "It looks like things aren't going to plan."

Jorus took one look at Senik and his eyes widened a little. "Shit. A kebalim. If they have cabal squads involved in this…" He looks to the ground for a second before straightening back up and finishing his report. "Depends on who you ask. We detached from a company whose objective was to create and maintain a refuge point for the wounded and—"

Senik holstered his Shuriken and crossed his arms. "The Kaliar apartments, yes. We've heard of this. Is it still active?"

"Last we heard, kebalim," Jorus said with a nod. "More have temporarily joined the company to help hold the perimeter around the structure and attempt to open up some safe corridors for people to move through."

"Any word on Commander Tensus?"

Jorus shook his head. "But we've heard that he's left the Radiatum in order to rally up a force at the new Sigis to sweep ground troops out. He wants to give anyone with heavy munitions a clear shot at those monstrously huge bastards crawling all over our city."

"Heavy munitions won't do a damn thing," Kevin said as everyone turned to look at him. "You need to stay the hell out of their way and try to survive long enough for them to leave. Don't take them head on. You'll just get yourselves killed."

"Who the hell is this?" asked Jorus with an irritated flick of the hand towards Kevin. "A quarian? A lost child from the squads infesting the parliamentary?"

"Someone who knows more about fighting reapers than you," Senik scolded. His tone was neutral as ever, but the searing daggers underneath the words could be felt all around. "Drop the ego, Sergeant. We've got no room for that as long as reapers are on Taetrus."

The bloodied turian straightened up like he'd just been stabbed in the spine. "Yes kebalim! Apologies, kebalim!"

A nearby explosion and subsequent building collapse caused the structure to shake and quiver all around them. Eyes went up to ensure nothing was about to fall on any heads, and lucky the only things that tumbled were unsecured décor. More gunfire erupted chaotically from two different directions, then three. Turians yelling to each other or screaming in agony could be heard above the reaper roars that blanketed the city with malice, and a collective chill spread throughout all those listening.

"This area will be overrun in a matter of minutes," Senik notified. "We had a myriad of troops on our fringes when we pushed in here and there's at least a legion's strength outside judging by the size of the conflicts. We're pushing for Kaliar, and we need you to help hold the HVL until I can contact my mobile assets to load up citizens, wounded, and children for evac."

"There weren't any children when we…" Jorus trailed off and shifted uncomfortably when he spotted Velus and Rastex peeking out from behind their moms' legs, pistols in hand. "Spirits…"

Senik stepped by Jorus and his squad. "We need to get moving. Our large group is already attracting a lot of attention and the last thing we need is to bring down a host on the evac point."

"How should we proceed, kebalim?" Madeen asked.

Kevin shrugged. "Our chance at stealth is already blown. Might as well clear as much of a swath to Kaliar as we can and mop up any stupid enough to follow us there when they catch up."

Senik nodded. "Agreed. Double file, citizens at the center! Keep your side clear and notify the rest of large groups! Let's move!"

Senik led the charge as Jorus and his squad mingled into Core and Vanguard Squads. Once outside the other end of the building, they got their first significant look at the Kaliar Apartments complex that they had been pushing for. It was a tall, rectangular building with one of the ends taller and pointed. A few more steps would see it obscured by closer buildings.

They had barely moved into the next partially destroyed building before they were being fired upon from off to the right somewhere. This being Kevin's side, he took a moment to take cover and wait for another shot so he could locate the attacker. It came quickly enough, and Kevin honed in on the location to let fly a volley of fire with his newly acquired Phaeston rifle. It was surprisingly accurate when fired in bursts, and after a few more volleys, a pair of cannibals fell from a blown out third-story window. Without even a second to relish the kills, Kevin was up and moving with the legion once more.

The legion and the attachments were able to keep a fairly quick pace, but only for a short distance. The number of hostiles within kill range was increasing rapidly and encroaching on their little train. This quickly turned their march into a stop-and-go affair, and the overwhelming number of blazing drop pods were getting close to reinforcing their numbers faster than Sphelix could kill them off. It was only a matter of time before the train was halted and reduced to just trying to keep the cannibals and reaperized turians from breaking through their defense.

"This shitstorm is going to drive us under pretty soon!" Madeen yelled out over the immense volume of constant gunfire. "We'll run out of thermal clips before we even get to the apartments!"

Kevin was doing about as well as any turian in the legion, taking out reaper troops left and right. The problem was that for every one he killed, two more came out of cover or from one of the buildings nearby. On top of that, these troops had an almost suicidal drive to push forward, making any single one that went ignored for more than a few seconds a threat to getting in close and doing some serious damage. At first this wasn't a problem; hostiles were being taken out at a relatively safe distance. But as more and more enemies joined the siege, the defenders were forced to take cover more often and individual troops were getting dangerously close and frequently.

As Kevin ducked back in for cover and to eject a thermal clip, a dozen shots followed him and picked away at the broken wall he was sitting behind. After he was done flinching, he realized he had to scoot further inward to keep himself covered, and he soon discovered this was the case all down the line of soldiers. It was getting cramped, and the threat for enemy fire coming through and hitting someone in the back was growing. Kevin was suddenly having brief flashbacks to the downed Forverna as he and the surviving quarians were fighting—and failing—to keep the geth at bay. The similarities to his current situation made those red flags in the back of his mind rise higher with each passing minute.

In the distance, he could see small regiments of turians made up evenly of colonial infantry and armed citizens trying to take the fight to the gathering invaders. Things started to go well until he spotted a reaperized turian doing... something to a cannibal. Within a few seconds, the cannibal in question had materialized plated armor over 70% of its body. What the hell…? When it went to fight the turians, a good half of the shots it took were deflected entirely, and only after a good number of devastating seconds did they get blown off to expose the beast underneath. Two citizens and one colonial infantry were shot down by this cannibal during that short time, and the rest soon followed once their defensive line was broken.

"Son of a bitch… Kebalim! Those reaper turians are somehow materializing armor on the cannibal things! The armor seems to be resisting quite a lot of small arms fire!"

Senik nodded once. "Sphelix! Target the hostile turians first! They can place armor on the other footsoldiers!"

Kevin heard the word "Grenades!" called out in alarm somewhere down the line before Senik could even finish, and saw a number of cabalists jump away from a luminescent cylinder the same way Senik had jumped through the window not too long ago.

Two turians, however, were not cabalists.

Those two, both of Sergeant Jorus's squad, simply could not move away in time. The explosion tore right through their kinetic barriers and armor, ultimately causing fatal injuries on the spot. Their corpses were thrown slightly, scorched and spitting blue blood. Those in the surrounding area were temporarily dazed from the blast, but no further injuries were sustained.

"Damnit! We just lost Palcus and Bexen!" shouted the only other member of their squad.

Kevin heard Jorus curse loudly before the Sergeant got up to confront Senik. Senik, as Kevin observed, didn't even have to look in Jorus's direction to know he was coming and held up a hand gesturing for him to get back into cover.

"Mencius! Take Vanguard Squad out around our right flank and stick them in the back! We need to take pressure off that side so we can get moving again!"

"Yes kebalim!" she shouted as the squad stood in unison and used their biotics to charge out of the corridor they had all been camping in.

Kevin couldn't see them at first, but after a few seconds he could spot them all the way across the field of battle flitting here and there like ships jumping in and out of FTL. They took a brief high road across rooftops to get up and around the backside of the flow of enemies to cut them off. He noticed they intentionally didn't use biotic explosions in their swift sweep down on the heads of the unwitting hostiles. Good call. Those explosions would alert the rest of them to their presence.

"Watch your fire, Sphelix. Vanguard Squad is in the fray," Senik said as he stood and swapped sides to fight off the waves coming in from behind him. "Marksman Squad, focus fire on the southeast. We need to get them off our ass for a minute."

Within a few minutes, the entrenched ground troops to the east had thinned significantly thanks to Vanguard Squad's decisive and brutal charge, and it was only a couple minutes more before they were wiped out entirely from being caught in the intense crossfire. Vanguard Squad charged their way back to the rest of the legion and Tauria headed up front instead of back to their place in the line with the rest of the squad.

"Kebalim Corvallus!" she called as she ran by the line of people still firing out to the west. "We think there's a perimeter up ahead, and it's taking a beating. Large scale conflicts surround the Kaliar complex, but if we push north then east, we should be able to flank the biggest group and press them into the crossfire."

Senik looked out southwest where some straggling reaper troops were still trying to push up and getting put down by the Marksman Squad. "Wrap it up, Sphelix, we're leaving!"

Kevin saw the entire legion rise in unison and the steady flow of people along the line resumed without so much as a hiccup. It seemed to him that everyone was quite happy to be moving again even if they were just moving from one potential disaster to another. We've barely been involved for a couple hours and the team is already desperately looking for silver linings. I know these guys are hardier than most, they must really be catching on to how bad the situation is.

As they moved into the next set of buildings just two blocks away from the perimeter conflict, Kevin feet nearly slid out from under him from the floor being so slick. Light was very dim here, as the building hadn't seen nearly as much damage as the others and there were no holes for smoked-out daylight to pour through. As he flicked on his omni-tool's light he looked down to see what was causing such loose footing. He found that the floor was painted blue, and…

No, that's not paint. "My God…"

"Shit…" muttered Haekas as Core Squad lit up the surrounding rooms. "Butchered like xemna."

It was, for all intents and purposes, a bloody massacre. Turians, perforated, twisted, and misshapen from some massive battle were strewn about all over the place. Some were citizens, some were soldiers. The entire room was coated in evidence of the huge fight that took place here—spent heat sinks, bullet holes, explosive damage, and dead reaper troops could be seen anywhere Kevin looked. And blue… So much blue. Splatters on the walls, the ceiling, and a constant oozing film on the floor. Kevin had to shut off the olfactory filters of his suit's helmet. The smell of death was heavy and gagging.

The further in they went, the worse the grisly scene became. A room they had passed by was littered with corpses of turians backed up against the walls, some still clutching loved ones. Those ones didn't have weapons. Still it got worse. The small corpses of four turian children were stuffed in a corner and so violently split that their little bones were thrust outward and visible even at a distance. It was too much for a number of people, and even Madeen had to avert her eyes from such cruel slaughter. Hardened soldiers they might be, but no one is ever prepared to see children so mercilessly slain.

Kevin pulled Madeen over to the entrance to the hall that the children had been huddled in. She resisted and threw his hands off.

"What the hell? Get your fucking hands off of me, human!"

"Calm down and stand here with me," Kevin said as he stood in the entrance, his back to the unthinkable carnage.

"I'm… I'm not looking at that again."

"I'm not asking you to. I just need you to help me block the hallway. Rast and Vel don't need to see this." Even turian children should be spared something like this.

Madeen stared at Kevin through his visor for a few seconds before she nodded once and moved to stand next to him. They spent a good minute acting as a roadblock to prevent access and block view of the horrors behind them. When the four citizens came up with Shield Squad, Kevin and Madeen nodded to them to silently urge them to move along. Fortunately, they did so without question.

Then Rastex appeared out of the moving line and stood in front of Madeen. "I heard Mom say we're going to die today, but I think she's lying because she's scared. Valina says that you and the keb'lim will protect everyone, too. You can do that, right?"

Kevin saw Madeen swallow hard. Even he was having a hard time looking at her. He could tell that the monstrous image of those children right behind her was all she was seeing right now.

After a few seconds, however, she blinked and looked down at the child. "You're a brave kid, Rast. Tell you what. Why don't you help the kebalim and I protect everyone? We'll do everything we can as good turians to keep everyone safe, including you and your mom. Deal?"

Rastex smiled a warm turian smile and he nodded five, six, seven times. "Yeah! I can help!"

Madeen gave Rastex's short fringes a playful tug and she lightly started shoving him towards the group. "Get right on that, soldier! Keep those citizens safe!"

Rastex hopped along a few times until he rejoined the group and sought out his parents, swelling with turian pride. Senik appeared from a nearby shadow and stared right at Madeen and Kevin, then nodded once before heading for the front.

"Gather up any weapons and thermal clips you can find. Our kin fought hard and died here with honor, but they can still help us. Be quick about it; we have a perimeter to secure just ahead."

The legion complied and began gathering up unused supplies from the fallen. Kevin and Madeen remained in front of the hallway for a short while longer until most of the legion had passed before they joined the scavenger hunt.

"That kid's going to grow up to be a hell of a soldier," Kevin said as they were pulling thermal clips from some charred armor. He glanced at Madeen, but she was busy detaching a bandolier of explosives from an unarmored citizen and clearly had nothing to say on the matter.

"Rastex?" answered Valina while packing away a few salvaged thermal clips. "Yeah, that kid's got a lot of fight in him. I'll bet you he saves one of us sometime today."

"I'll put creds down on that bet," said a female turian from Vanguard Squad that went by the name Relissi Stensus. "You always did have good judge of character, Val."

Valina smirked back at Relissi and pulled a Phaeston from some nearby rubble. She gave it a quick inspection and checked the thermal clip before nodding and holstering her shotgun. "When all this shit is over, I'll have to remind you how good a judge I am."

Kevin looked over at the two flirts and raised a brow. He hadn't realized just how loose turian military was regarding fraternization. It might have only been talk, but somehow he doubted that's all it really was. Either way, it seemed to calm their fraying nerves at least a little, and if that's what their coping mechanism was, he wasn't about to get in their way.

Once the squads had regrouped, the train was moving again. They had finally cleared beyond the blue spatters and broken bones, but what waited ahead wasn't any more pleasant. They had one more set of buildings to move through before they reached the Kaliar perimeter, and the atmosphere was alive with fear, agony, stalwart resistance, and desperate clings to hope and survival. The air smelled of blood and flame, sounded of utter destructive chaos, and felt immensely heavy as if the very atmosphere around them was trying to crush them where they stood.

Core Squad and Marksman Squad lined up inside the final building of this block to get a view of the last street they needed to cross, weapons up and aimed. Senik stepped up next to Madeen to get a look out and called to the others. "Core Squad, Marksman Squad, provide covering fire for the others. We're going across and straight through these buildings. Don't bother going silent once we get there, the enemy likely already knows we're here now that their reinforcements have been cut." He swiftly flicked a hand forward in a point. "Vanguards, go!"

In the blink of an eye, Vanguard squad was across the street and pressing themselves into cover as a hail of fire shot out from inside just as they arrived. One of the turians lost shields and took a glancing blow off of his shoulder armor just as he was taking cover, but he used gestures to report no serious injury and scooted himself to proper cover.

"Heavy squad, you're cleared for explosives," Senik called out and flicked his hand again. "Get that place clear." In the same moment, Heavy Squad was on their way over. Gunfire erupted all over the street as enemy forces from either side spotted the group and let fly a number of volleys. Core and Marksman squads were returning fire, giving Heavy Squad the chance to focus on just making it across the street in one piece. Luckily for them, the area they were heading to was a nook of sorts, and it more or less shielded them from the incoming fire on either side.

One turian was unfortunate enough to lose kinetic barriers and take a shot in the calf just below his spur. He tumbled on the spot, about three-quarters of the way, screaming in pain. Targold, having been with Heavy Squad, simply picked the turian up with one hand and ran him across the rest of the way with a roar as shots deflected off of his kinetic barriers or few by his head.

"Saren Nolencus is hit!" Tycus shouted as he reached back to prep some emergency medicine. "Doesn't look fatal!" He ducked behind the cover as a few Phaeston shots ricocheted off of the wall he was hiding behind.

Kevin watched with bated breath as Targold hoisted the injured turian into a corner where he was least likely to be spotted. Not more than half a minute after that, however, Kevin heard a host of howls that echoed in the air from some direction unknown and he spotted movement all along the upper silhouette of the building. Within the same few seconds, the horrifyingly familiar shapes and glowing patterns of husks were crawling over the roof and through the upper level windows overlooking Heavy and Vanguard squads. "Watch it! Husks coming from up high!"

Marksman squad simultaneously shifted their focus to the building across the street and began firing on the husks as they made themselves seen. The first few to be fully exposed fell limp over the edge of the roof, almost colliding with a few from Heavy Squad. Both Heavy and Vanguard Squad looked skyward as a few more disabled husks fell off of the roof or tumbled out of a broken window. They got the hint and Vanguard Squad kept eyes high for more while Heavy Squad handled the bunkered monsters inside.

Fortunately these husks were a minor group and there weren't more than seven or eight. Meanwhile, Heavy Squad began the process of flushing hostiles out of the building with explosive and incendiary grenades, which did the trick for the moment. Blown to bits or burned into slag, the hostile forces inside fell apart and scattered to evade the inferno. Heavy and Vanguard squad both pushed up into the building while Marksman Squad and Core Squad returned to picking off incoming hostiles. However, it quickly became apparent that there was a problem.

"Kebalim!" called out a turian next to Kevin.

"What is it, Persus?"

Persus continued to fire as he spoke, breaking his sentences up into stuttered segments. "We have - a problem! The - enemies are - reinforcing from the - street faster than - we can take them out! - We need a sweep!" He ducked behind a piece of wall as several shots grazed his cover and a grenade landed somewhere nearby in the street. Fortunately the explosion wasn't close enough to do any harm.

Senik nodded and looked to a group of three turians hanging back with Shield Squad. "Artillery Squad, you're up. One-eighty degree sweep. Shield Squad, keep them alive! You're the only cover they've got! Go!"

"Yes kebalim!" the squads shouted as they moved up to fill their role. Shield Squad coated the three members of the Artillery squad in barriers, then moved up to the edge of the available cover to project barrier walls on either side of the location that Artillery Squad was moving to.

Once out in the open, Artillery squad was taking the majority of the fire. The barriers were holding nicely, however, and that gave the trio all the time they needed to get themselves situated and charged with dark energy. Kevin saw the full potential of a well-coordinated biotic artillery unit just then. The first cabal threw out a warp onto an enemy in the center of the most densely packed group to coat it in a highly unstable mass effect field. The second followed up a few seconds later with a biotic throw to cause the unstable field to collapse and explode violently. The third followed up the explosion by tossing another warp field on the group least affected by the blast, and so on and so on. They essentially functioned like a chaingun firing off high-explosive shells – efficiency brought to a maximum by not forcing every cabalist to fire off an attack on every turn.

Within three detonations, the entire left side was clear of combat-capable hostiles, and four handled the right side. Artillery Squad hustled to the far side of the street with the remaining portion of the legion and its attachments in tow. Kevin could hear that the forward squads had already begun engaging enemies on the other side of the structure, their volleys mixing with those of the turians desperately trying to hold off the deadly tide. As they entered the building, Tycus pushed past Kevin to seek out Saren, who had been dragged inside and sat against the wall off to the right.

"Sit still, Saren. I need to see how bad it is," Tycus ordered as he brought up his omni-tool to scan the injured leg.

"Just slap some medi-gel on it so we can get moving," Saren argued, clearly unhappy with sitting still given how much he was still fidgeting.

Most of the legion held back for a few minutes, readjusting armor or replacing thermal clips into easy-to-access pockets. Kevin leaned against the wall to take a breather. He'd almost forgotten how mentally taxing such intense combat was. He watched Liam sit down against a wall and rest his face in his hands. As he rested there, Maela put a hand on Liam's shoulder then came to seek Kevin out.

"Hey… How are you holding up?" Her face and armor had gotten incredibly dirty in the past couple hours. He hadn't noticed this about anyone until he saw it on her.

"I'm still alive, which is more than can be said for a lot of people right now." He drew in a long, deep breath and let it out. "What about you?"

A nearby explosion rocked the building and everyone looked in that direction, Maela included. After it was apparent that it wasn't an attack on them, she shook her head and hugged herself. "I hate this shit. I hate it so much. We could all be dead in the next hour, and probably will be."

"That's a great outlook you have there," Kevin replied as he rotated his aching right shoulder. The Phaeston had more of a kick than most rifles he was used to.

She looked to her left and spotted a citizen turian, dead for at least an hour, slumped against a nearby wall. She grimaced and hugged herself again. "So much death. None of them even…"

"I saw you shoot a woman in the throat without so much as a second thought. Why does death suddenly bother you so much now that we're surrounded by it?"

Maela looked to Kevin, brows pressed together in weariness. "Those stupid Cerberus agents knew what they were signing up for day one. They deserved what they got. But… All of these people… None of them chose this. None of them had a chance against those… things." She peered at the two children sticking near their parents.

"That's the way it works in war," Kevin said as stood up off of the wall. Another explosion rocked the building from a different direction. Less people paid attention to it this time.

"And that's why I fucking hate it."

Tycus stood and turned to talk to Senik. "It's not bad. The shot went through muscle only; no bone. A moderate dose of medi-gel applied directly can seal it up, keep it together, and numb some of the pain. He'll be able to move, but he won't be quite as mobile."

Senik moved over to Saren and pulled him to his feet. "Good to hear you're still with us, Nolencus. We don't have the 'combat ineffective' option on this op."

Saren took a brief moment to steady himself before he stood straight as he tested the limits of his injured leg. Once he found them, he grunted, slapped Senik twice on the arm used to hold him, and nodded.

"Shit! Shit! Relocate! Get out of there!" echoed the yells of someone fighting on the other side of the structure.

Suddenly, Vanguard and Heavy squads both came running backwards into the area where everyone was and two from heavy squad set mines down in the doorway they pulled back through. They all continued to backpedal until they mingled with the rest of the legion.

"Kebalim!" shouted Valina as she backed up towards her leader. "We have a big problem!"

Before Senik could even ask what the problem was, the sound of quick, impossibly heavy thuds came echoing into the room through the door the squads just backed out through, followed by a deep, exceedingly loud roar. Everyone's attention—and weapons—was drawn to the door and they all backed away slowly.

It was a good thing they did. Something massive busted through the door, taking the doorframe and half of the entire wall through with it. The explosions from the mines barely did anything before they were smothered out. The debris collapsed across a good portion of the room, including some of where the legion had previously been standing. There was another deafening roar and a tiny red light could be seen through the agitated dust.

Kevin had his Phaeston trained on whatever was in there, but simply firing blind would be pointless, especially if two squads had to retreat from it. Maela was right next to him doing the same thing. Others were trying hard not to cough from the stirred-up dust. The red light lifted up until it was almost at the ceiling of the tall room. When the dust finally started to settle enough to get some eyes on the target, there was a collective jaw-drop for just a moment across the entire legion.

"Holy fucking shit," Maela muttered aloud as she started to slowly backpedal again.

She had good reason. The thing that stood in the dust before them was a hulking beast. A reaperized brute that looked like an amalgamation of turian and krogan body parts mixed with the unmistakable metal modifications of reaper tech holding the thing together. It had to easily be sixteen feet tall and was as wide was the armored transports they were riding earlier. The red spot they'd seen through the dust turned out to be its only eye, which sat on a reaperized turian skull lacking the jaw. The cybernetic spine that connected it to the body was long and snaked upward to increase its height even more.

The beast roared, deafening everyone in the building and causing them to take a few more steps back. The intimidating monolith ducked low in a charging stance and was about to lunge right amidst the ranks of the Sphelix Legion when three burst-fire shots rang against the side of the armored metal head. The brute turned to look at Senik, who shot another burst from his Shuriken into the faceplates of that false turian face. The beast recoiled backwards, but didn't seem to take any serious damage.

"Shield Squad, Marksman Squad!" the kebalim called out. "Get the citizens out back and hold the entrance from enemy intrusion!" That was as much order as he could give before the brute had begun to charge him with alarming speed.

Senik jumped left using the same biotic maneuver as he did before, which got him clear of the massive claw of an arm that came swinging at his previous position. Everyone began to fire upon it once their kebalim was out of the way, but the many metal plates that covered the organic bits were very resistant to small arms fire and most shots deflected off of them. What shots did land didn't faze it at all.

The brute's large swing kept it moving forward and it crashed into the wall that Senik had been standing in front of. The entire building shook violently and some areas collapsed outright, once more filling the room with dust and making the entire field of battle inherently dangerous. The brute didn't care. It didn't seem to care about anything other than killing every last one of them. This kind of reckless charge made it especially dangerous, as it would not be deterred by danger or threats to its own existence.

As the brute turned towards Senik and those standing near him to continue its rampage, enemy fire started coming through the gaping maw it left in the wake of its entrance. Kevin had been building dark energy in order to help combat the brute, but he was forced to throw out a barrier between him and the incoming troops in order to keep him, Maela, and several others from getting wiped out at the flank.

"Guys! We have a few squads incoming! Some help please?!" His barrier held strong as multiple enemies continued to lay down excessive fire on it, giving Maela and a few members of Vanguard Squad and Heavy Squad time to focus on the new threat and act accordingly.

Senik was busy keeping the brute distracted, but somehow he was still able to give orders between jumps. "Heavy Squad, clear out the enemy squads! Artillery Squad, help them! Core Squad, Vanguard Squad, you're with me!"

The room fell into a staggering level of chaos. Enemy fire was everywhere, testing the barriers of those who managed to throw some up in time. When the hostiles were forced to hold fire for a few moments to cool their weapons down, the various squads broke out of their dangerously tight formations to move more freely. The building shook again as the huge malformation hit another wall in an attempt to strike Senik down, and Kevin was rightfully worried that the entire structure was about to come down on their heads.

The brief lull in enemy fire gave Kevin the time to drop his barrier and relocate behind a freshly fallen pile of rubble and start recharging his stores of dark energy. He peered over the edge and saw that the brute had since learned that simply charging the kebalim wasn't working and was now trying to move in close to grab him with the massive metal claw on its left arm or crush him with a powerful swing. The rest of Core Squad and Vanguard Squad had moved in to assault it, but their weapons weren't doing very much damage. They would resort to biotics next.

The enemy fire had resumed and the room once again was alight with sparks, projectiles, and deflected shots. Once Kevin heard a short series of biotic explosions disrupt the enemy troops' march, he ducked low and scooted across the room towards the brute, Senik, and the squads involved there. They're never going to down that thing by shooting at the metal. They have to know that by now. His low stance was more than just for avoiding fire now; just as he got closer to the group, the brute swung wide and the huge meal claw flew over his head so close that Kevin felt the wave of air that followed in its wake kiss his suit. It ended up hitting one of Vanguard Squad square in the chest and the turian flew clear across the room to crack loudly against the wall.

"Shit! Auros is down!" someone shouted over the constant noise. Unfortunately, no one had a moment to spare to check on him.

Senik relocated again to position himself away from the crossfire between the legion and the reaper troops and Kevin tried to move around the brute to find some sort of weak point. Turians left and right were pounding on the monster with everything but biotics. It was too close quarters to risk a biotic explosion. The brute kicked Haekas and he stumbled into Kevin at high speed, causing them both to tumble to the ground right in the middle of the battle. Both struggled to get untangled before they were stepped on or shot, and as they found their feet, Haekas slapped Kevin on the shoulder in thanks for breaking his fall.

Senik was eying Kevin when he returned to the fight, he and called to the quarian-clad human as he took a series of shots at a soft spot on the brute. "Folner, is that a monomolecular blade?" he shouted before ducking right and relocating again to avoid a crushing blow.

"Yeah, why?" He jumped over a cannibal that was running in his direction and had stumbled to the ground from being shot.

"Go for the neck!" Senik shouted back as he dodged a downward swing that caused the ground to fracture at the impact. "Arcellus! Get him up there!"

Madeen paused after using long, thin blades protruding from her bracers to slice a cannibal's arms and legs clean off to look at her kebalim, then to Kevin. "Yes kebalim!" she shouted as she turned to shoot another rushing reaperized turian straight in the face. She then turned and performed one of those teleport-like jumps to get half-way across the room and behind the raging brute. She ducked into a slide as a giant arm came swinging overhead in another failed attempt to hit Senik.

Kevin had already adjusted his direction to head for where Madeen was preparing to go, having a good idea of what she had in mind. Turian and reaper fire was whizzing by his head in both directions and his kinetic barriers took a couple hits, which brought its power so low that the next shot to hit him would cause them to fail. Another cannibal tumbled in his way and he leapt over it to land in a forward tumble to maintain as much momentum as possible. A few steps ahead, Madeen had just gotten into position and she flicked her head at him to head upward, fingers laced in front of her at waist height and he holstered his Phaeston to have both hands ready. Her kinetic barriers took a hit as well, he saw, but she was entirely unfazed and held her stance. With a quick leap up, he shoved his boot into the palms of her armored hands and she gave him enough of a boost up for him to catch a hold of the top armored plates of the monster.

It was still flailing at Senik, who abandoned his position in a fast slide through the brute's legs the moment Kevin was on top of it, and the wall he'd been backed up against collapsed with clockwork timing. It turned with incredible speed to find its target again and Kevin nearly lost his grip. He cursed to himself as he pulled his body back up to the top so he could look down at the back of the brute's head, and he reached for his blade, unsheathing it. He wasted no time in taking a full-armed swing at the relatively thin, snaking metal neck, but the brute charged into the fray and he lost balance. The knife only skimmed its neck and ended up getting lodged into a piece of shoulder armor.

Damnit! Now?! Seriously?! he raged as his attempts to get a hold of the knife's grip proved fruitless. The brute had noticed him after the swipe at the neck and was swinging at him frantically to remove him. Luckily for Kevin, the brute's range of motion on his arms was too limited for Kevin to take any actual hits, but the wild flailing of the monster proved incredibly destructive everywhere else. Walls, ceilings, even reaper troops and turians alike were either taking blunt force hits or barely dodging them. I need to take this thing out now! But my knife… He looked at his hand as he held on to the brute's back for dear life. The image of a turret pivot pole being punched in two flashed in his head for a fraction of a second and he started gathering dark energy as the room spun and tilted around him.

He wasn't going to be punching anything as long as the brute was doing whatever it could to shake him off, though. "Senik!" he shouted at everything and nothing, fighting the volume of the brute's angered roars. "I need some help! Distract him for two seconds!"

Senik seemed to hear and understand him and he and Madeen started working hard to gain the brute's limited attention as the rest of the legion was busy running here and there to keep the room as clear of hostiles as possible. Their concentrated fire succeeded in causing the brute to pay attention to them just long enough, and Kevin, having gathered enough dark energy to make his move strong enough, pulled himself up and vaulted over the hunched back of the brute. Using the dark energy to coat his fist and forearm in a very high-mass distortion field, he swung a downward-angled punch at the center of the neck. Don't miss. Don't miss. Don't miss, you bosh'tet!

It all seemed to happen in slow motion, reminiscent of his times of superfocus in months past but without the warmth in his head. The fist, armed with the concentrated velocity of a freight train engine at half speed, collided with the brute's neck with devastating effects. The metal sparked, bent, cracked, then snapped along with everything inside it. The head fell forward and hit the floor with a satisfying clank, then rolled a few feet. The body ceased all functions immediately and went as limp and and fell to the floor. Kevin had to roll forward on his landing after jumping over the brute's shoulders to avoid getting crushed by the headless form.

As he pushed himself to his feet and pulled his Phaeston, he realized that the gunfire had stopped. He looked around frantically, but found that all of the enemies had been routed. Their cybernetic corpses were littered everywhere and turians were moving about with far more control to check on one or two that had suffered injuries. Kevin felt a strong, firm hand on his shoulder as Senik walked by him towards the busted door that the enemy had been pouring through.

"Marksman Squad, Heavy Squad, with me. We're going to secure the perimeter here. Core Squad, check on those sent to the rear. We haven't heard anything from them yet. Tycus, you stay and clean up those injuries. Everyone else, gather anything that looks useful, including supplies from the fallen. Move out."

"Not even a moment to breathe," Maela complained right behind Kevin, looking to distract herself with his voice.

"Reapers don't breathe," Madeen spat as she pushed between them while heading for the rear entrance. "Neither can we."

Kevin gave Maela a mildly apologetic shrug as he turned to follow the turian female out back with most of Core Squad. Maela slumped slightly and turned to follow them to the back where Shield Squad was holding. Marksman squad came up from the back, their faces weary and covered in so much dust and dirt that it was hard to see their clan markings. Most pushed right on by Core Squad in order to fulfill their orders to secure the perimeter with Senik, but the turian known as Berus Persus stopped to look at them. Something had sapped his energy and determination.

"It… It got real bad back there. You might want to ready yourselves," he said as he looked to the ground and started after the rest of his squad.

"Shit…" Haekas cursed as he watched Berus head off. "Never a good sign."

"Let's get this over with," Takrien said uneasily as he resumed his course.

Kevin looked to Madeen, who returned his glance before flicking her head in the direction of the others. He and Madeen followed the rest to the back where they had initially entered. The first thing they noticed was that the main entrance they had gone through was collapsed and inaccessible. Sergeant Jorus's head was amongst the lower rocks and rubble.

"Crushed under debris," Haekas noted, shaking his head. "No honor in that."

"He died fighting the reapers for the people of Taetrus," Madeen said as she shoved Haekas from behind. "Plenty of honor in that, you piece of shit."

Hakeas stumbled forward, turned around and lifted his hands to indicate he wasn't going to say anything else on the matter.

"Where's Shield Squad? The Citizens?" Takrien asked.

"Split up and search," Madeen ordered. "Call it if you spot hostiles."

Everyone nodded and started in one of three different directions. Kevin just happened to be going to the right, which was the same direction Madeen chose. Rubble was everywhere. The brute's bashing caused far more structural damage than Kevin had initially estimated. There were a few holes in the outer wall up ahead on their left, though only one or two had enough space to crawl through. Both of them had turned their lights on to see better in the dusty dimness as they searched.

"Found Shield Squad," Takrien radioed in. "They're pretty beat and look in serious need of a couple energy rations, but they seem in one piece. Haekas, help me get them up."

"On my way."

Kevin heard Madeen breathe a sigh of relief. The hallway split at a T intersection and Kevin went right while Madeen went straight. He took a good look around several crumbling rooms, but found nothing of significance. "Looks clear this way, Madeen," he said over the comms.

She did not reply.

Kevin didn't have anything else to look at over here, so he decided to head back and follow Madeen's original path. It wasn't too far along passed the intersection when a number of reaper troop corpses were spotted littering the ground inside the building. There was a sizable hole in the outer wall here as well, which must have been where they got in. His first fear was that Madeen had gotten ambushed from all sides and taken out. Just around a corner on his right after that, however, he found Madeen alive and well, motionless and staring off to the other side of the room where her light had been focused.

"Madeen, what are you—" He cut himself off as he saw what she was staring at.

The room showed signs of carnage everywhere. Scorch marks and innumerable bullet impacts spotted the walls and floor, along with gratuitous amounts of blue blood. Some old, some very, very fresh. Parts of this room had collapsed from the brute's rampage as well, making for a very grim scene. On the far side, where Madeen had been staring, were the four adult citizens that had been travelling with them, each perforated with several shot wounds all over their bodies. The two children, however, were conspicuously absent.

"What the hell happened?" Kevin asked aloud to the bodies, somehow expecting some sort of answer. "Why wasn't Shield Squad—"

Some scuffling from somewhere in the room caused Kevin to cut his question short. It only took them a few seconds each to see what the source was. Something small was shuffling across the floor, crawling. It took them a few more seconds to realize the small thing was Rastex. He was pulling himself across the floor, grunting and sobbing all at once, towards the nearest citizen corpse slumped back against the wall—his father, Corsik. He was dragging something along with him, though it was behind the boy and difficult to see.

Kevin, paralyzed from watching this heart-wrenching scene, soon realized why he was crawling in that fashion. Rastex's body from the hips down were ruinously crushed, presumably by falling rubble, to the point that they might as well have not even been there at all. He left a trail of blue smudges on the floor every time he pulled himself forward. Kevin wondered how this child even had the strength to pull himself anywhere, much less out of fallen debris. Turians. Even their children impress me.

Suddenly, the thought of useless legs brought images of Bela'Merni into his head, particularly the ones where she cried into the air at finding out half of her body had been severed away. Immediately he wanted to be anywhere but here, but he still couldn't bring himself to move. Not even to help the child. He thought about using the excuse of trying to find Vel as a means to get away, but the sight of a trickle of blue blood seeping out from somewhere deep under the pile of rubble Rast was crawling from made that clear enough.

When the boy pulled himself to his father, he looked up at the face of his dad with tears streaming down his face, and he hauled the object up from next to him. It was a Phaeston. Quite possibly Corsik's Phaeston at that. He struggled with the heavy gun as he fought just to set it across his father's lap before looking back up at the emotionless face once more in expectation. "Dad, here... I told you I'd help you fight, remember?" The boy picked up his father's limp hand and set it on the gun's handle, then shook it when he realized it would not grip the gun. "Dad, wake up! It hurts… I need you to help me fight! You promised! Please… wake up…"

Kevin swallowed a lump in his throat so hard that he thought he was going to choke. Move, damnit! Go help the boy! Madeen would not move either, it seemed, her jaw slightly agape. The boy pulled himself up a little, attempting to crawl onto his dad's lap, but his strength finally failed him and he slipped on the pool of blood under him to collapse half on one of his father's bloody legs.

The sound of footsteps behind them snapped both him and Madeen out of their respective paralyzed states as Senik and Artillery Squad came up looking for them. It was then Kevin realized he still wasn't moving, and a female turian passed by him to rush over to the child while Relus ran over to check the citizens.

"Damnit, are you guys alright?" asked one of Artillery Squad as Senik walked by to get a good look at what happened.

Kevin nodded but didn't bother to speak. If he did, he was sure it come out as a croak.

"We're fine," Madeen said, suppressing a frustrated, angry growl as if insulted by the very question. "Him? Not so much…"

All the sudden movement seemed to finally get the boy's attention and he looked up to the people in the room. His face was shining with tears and blood and his expression told of agony, both physically and emotionally. "Please help my dad! He needs to wake up so we can fight! Madeen? Please help him…" Rastex looked over at Madeen, pleading with his eyes.

Madeen stared back at him. It was though she knew what she had to do but her body wouldn't let her do it. Kevin could see her gritting her teeth. Hard. "I'll… be right there, Rast. Hang in there, kid."

The female turian who checked on Rastex came back to Senik and she shook her head. "There's no way he'll survive those injuries and he'll bleed out soon. We could patch him up, but he'll still die in extreme pain, the poor kid."

Senik nodded, face a blank and sterile mask, and he unholstered his Shuriken.

Kevin's brows pressed together and he put a hand on Senik's arm. The turian slowly turned his head to look at Kevin's hand as if his gaze could burn it right off, then looked to the human who owned it. Kevin dared to stare back this time. "Let me. I did this as a profession not too long ago." He knew that there wasn't a single turian in this room, the kebalim included, that wanted to handle this task. He didn't any more than they did, but he felt it wasn't proper for turian military to be executing their own, even in mercy.

Senik's eyes shrank to slivers and he put his gun away. "Do it quickly, and ensure he doesn't see."

Kevin nodded and he looked to Madeen. "I'll need you to talk to him. He looks up to you more than anyone else."

Madeen looked to Senik as if to ask "Are you really going to make me do this?" Senik flicked his head towards the child in response to that. Madeen's jaw clenched hard and she made her way over to the kid, forcing the least convincing turian smile Kevin had ever seen.

Kevin heard Madeen talking to the kid, but he'd shut off whatever she was saying from his mind. He walked around behind Rastex while he was distracted with Madeen's presence and unholstered his Phalanx. His throat was dry as a bone. This was the first time he was ever going to end a child's life intentionally, and there was just something about the prospect of the job that made his stomach twist into knots. As he raised the aim towards the back of the child's head, his trigger-finger froze. There was only one other time in recent memory that he faltered like this.

Damnit. Damnit! Why did I have to think of her now?

Just like that, memories of Bela'Merni assaulted his mind again, and this time with more than just flashing images. He could hear her cry in emotional agony. He could see the leafy grass she ripped from the ground in her final frustration. He could hear the haunting melody of that melancholy song she sang for him with her dying breath. The incomprehensible and ancient quarian words filled his ears and echoed endlessly throughout the room. I can't shoot her, he heard amongst the flowing eulogy. Why can't I shoot her? She needs this mercy.

Kevin was snapped out of it by the sound of a Shuriken firing a burst of shots. He looked down at the child, now dead, with three bullet wounds in the top of his head. Eyes wide, he looked over to see Senik holstering his pistol again and the turian glared at him. There was no weight in the galaxy as heavy as that which was brought down under that gaze. Senik growled and turned to leave as a number of other turians came to handle the bodies and move them to a corner out of respect.

Madeen walked by, eyes cold and distant. She only noticed Kevin standing there after she'd just walked by, and she stopped. Before Kevin could even get an apology out, she turned and punched him straight in the gut. "Stupid… Fucking… Asshole!"

Kevin collapsed to the floor, winded and fighting the overwhelming urge to vomit, as she and several others left the room to rejoin the rest of the legion. Only when Maela came over to help him off the floor did he try to move again. He couldn't get any words out in his desperate attempts to breathe, but Maela brought him to his feet without request.

"If it makes you feel any better," Maela commented, eyes bloodshot, "I know what just happened and I understand."

She was the only one in the galaxy who could understand. Kevin leaned onto her and gestured towards the room where everyone was gathering, and she helped him back to the rest of the legion. He saw that there were four colonial infantry talking with the kebalim by the time he'd finally made back to the rest, and he'd arrived just in time to catch the tail end of the conversation.

"You're clear to move into the Kaliar building. That little stunt you guys just pulled cleared a good swath of territory and we've established another corridor heading out this way." The turian speaking turned to look at the body of the cabalist that had taken the major hit from the brute earlier, now covered in a thin blanket. "I'm sorry we were unable to provide assistance."

"We've all been feeling the burden of loss today," Senik replied as he gestured for everyone to pack up and move out. "You've done your job by holding Kaliar as long as you have. There's nothing to apologize for." The kebalim turned to look at the body. "Auros Volen died in combat for his legion. He'll be remembered."

The colonial infantry were staring at the dead brute, muttering to each other. "You guys fought that thing in here?"

"And won," said Madeen, still trying to shake off what she'd just walked away from.

They looked to Madeen, then back to the brute. "Well then. We're certainly glad to have you guys on our side. Come on, the Kaliar complex is just ahead."

Kevin gave Maela a stroke across the back of her neck in thanks for helping him and he stood on his own again. His torso hurt like hell now, but it was nothing compared to things he'd endured in the past. Normally he'd swear some amount of vengeance, but he absolutely knew he deserved that.

As they left the building, they caught sight of the Kaliar Apartment complex just ahead. The entire building had been transformed by subtle hints of reinforcement and preparation for war. It almost looked like a fully realized garrison now.

"Finally," Liam said as he walked up beside Kevin and Maela.

"Maybe now we can take a rest?" the asari hoped.

"Hah. Not likely," grumbled Targold, ever the realist.

"Either way, we're only half-way to our destination," Kevin said as he looked off in the distance towards where the replacement Radiatum was.

Half-way… If only that weren't such a relative term.