Disclaimer: Mass Effect does not belong to me. It belongs to it's respective owners, namely Bioware.


Rachni Dreadnought, in orbit over Earth, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
19th March, 1918 CE.

The Dreadnought, holding position over the Earth, suddenly diverted their attention from the planet below, when they lost contact with the Scout Ship, which had been maintaining it's position over the planet's only natural satellite, which was 1.28 light-seconds away.

Refocusing their attention onto the moon, the dreadnought could see them.
The four cruisers, in close formation, were now on an approach to begin the engagement against the dreadnought, which was still holding position over the planet in a perfect defensive position, it's guns all loaded and ready to fire.

Soon, the dreadnought started acquiring target solutions, and noticed that the four cruisers were also acquiring targeting solutions as well.
It was now a matter of who got the shot off first, and the dreadnought was the first to get off a shot.

However, due to the targeting solution put in, the first shot was easily missed and the ships scattered, spreading themselves apart from one another.


Bridge, Aifa's Endurance class cruiser Talat's Sentinel, in orbit over Luna, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
19th March, 1918 CE.

Tolos' frown is what caught Tepak's attention, and he asked, "Something the matter, Captain?"

Exchanging a moment to look at his First Officer, he said, "Yes. The dreadnought had every change to destroy us in one swift stroke. But it only fired one. One shot that we easily evaded. And they didn't follow up with more. So, what are they up to?"
Commander Tepak answered with one fact that was apparent to him, "Well, if they've succeeded in one thing, they've split us up so much that we cannot support each other...", before he noticed that the Captain took on a look of realisation, that turned into horror.
"The dreadnought, it's split us up so it could take us out, one at a time!"

Immediately, he ordered, "Engines full ahead! Evasive manoeuvres!"

However, the target that the dreadnought had selected, was the Talat's Sentinel itself.
And the Dreadnought had fired a total of 10 rounds at the cruiser.

Ordering all defences online, Captain Morik Tolos knew it would not stop all of them.

As he watched the defences destroy the first 5 rounds, he did contemplate on getting him and his crew to the escape pods, but realised that it was a inevitable conclusion, that he and his crew would all die before they even got to them.
But just before the inevitable, he turned to Commander Jurlo Tepak and said, "Commander, it's been a privilage, having you as my First Officer".
"The honor, was all mine, Captain".

And within 10 seconds, the sixth, seventh and eighth rounds struck the Talat's Sentinel, penetrating the hull, and causing a catastrophic explosion that totally vaporised the cruiser and all it's personnel within.

All that was left, of the Talat's Sentinel, were mere fragments of ship's hull, that would float aimlessly in space as junk.


Ship Operations Center, Spirit of Apparitus class cruiser Spirit of Xerksulus, in orbit over Luna, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
19th March, 1918 CE.

"Sir, Talat's Sentinel has been destroyed! Scans indicate no escape pods launched and no survivors".

Captain Sydrus Vakarian rolled his eyes, as he watched the proceedings on the galaxy map, and shouted, "Yes, I'm aware of that, thank you very much for pointing out the very obvious, Operator!", before then saying, "Now get me Captain Kesth'ra and Captain Nyx, immediately!"

And soon, communications were on with the other two Captains and they started getting to work at coordinating with one another, which they knew, had to be done quickly as the dreadnought would soon launch another attack.

Kesth'ra was the first to speak, "Alright, we need to work out a way to survive before that dreadnought annihilates us all. Any suggestions, Captains?"
Nyx was the first to answer, "We could always retreat to behind the moon, and let the dreadnought come into an ambush".
"That'll be impossible. The dreadnought is in an ideal position to defend itself, and it'll not move from that position. Besides, the Rachni will obviously know that it's a trap and will not spring it. They aren't stupid".
Then, Vakarian came up with a solution fast, "How about we slingshot around the planet's moon and fire rounds and torpedoes, in the hope of doing some damage to the dreadnought's weapon systems? We could at least buy us some time. Enough time for the reinforcements to arrive".
Nyx was skeptical, "But they won't reach us in time, and besides we haven't got the firepower to break through the dreadnought's kinetic barriers. If we had the Talat's Sentinel with us, maybe we could have had a chance, but now...".
Vakarian however, was insistent, "We still have to try, at least. And as for the reinforcements, we need to launch a distress beacon".
At this, Kesth'ra spoke to someone off screen, before then saying, "I'm going to get the distress beacon ready to launch".
Vakarian nodded, "Good work, Kesth'ra".
"But, in the meantime, we do need to buy time. Just for us to even survive. Let's begin a slingshot around the...",
The conversation between the Captains was interrupted when an sensor console operator called out, "Torpedoes incoming! Torpedoes incoming!"

Immediately, Vakarian ordered defences be activated and power put into the kinetic barriers, as he saw on the Galaxy Map around five torpedoes, heading straight for the Spirit of Xerksulus.
Three torpedoes were destroyed, two by the laser turrets while one struck the kinetic barriers, while two torpedoes went right through and caused massive explosions that ripped holes in the hull, quite near the Ship Operations Center.

Captain Vakarian, on a very heavily damaged Ship Operations Center, got into contact with the other Captains, "We've taken heavy damage to our hull and we've lost all but one laser turret, and our kinetic barriers projectors are wrecked. If we're going to do our slingshot, we gonna need to do it quick".

With all the Captains acknowledging, all the ships were now putting full power into the engines, making full haste to slingshot around the moon.

But however, as they reached the proximity of the moon, the dreadnought launched another set of torpedoes, around 24 of them, all heading for the three cruisers, which by the time the torpedoes caught up with the cruisers, they were to cross into the dark side of the moon, and make their slingshot projectory.
The torpedoes were still enroute to their targets, with 6 heading for the Spirit of Xerksulus, 7 heading for the Estivus Erax and 4 heading for the Kurinth's Keen Sight, when the cruisers crossed into the dark side of the moon, being completely engulfed in darkness.

However, the torpedo did not require visual sight and so would still hit their target if nothing was done.

The Spirit of Xerksulus was lagging behind, it's engine thrust output not as high as the other cruisers due to previous damage, and Captain Vakarian ignored the shocked outbursts from the other Captains when he manoeuvred the Spirit of Xerksulus to make a hard left twist, basically turning the vessel to the left and increasing elevation of the starboard side.
Before the torpedoes came in, Captain Vakarian then said to the other Captains, "It's now up to you, Captains. Good luck and may the Spirits guide you", before cutting transmission, and then, saying to his crew, who were still dutifully working at their stations, but still listening, "Sons, Daughters of Palaven, it's been an honour, to have you under my command".

Meanwhile the one remaining laser turret, had acquired one torpedo, destroyed it, and began to acquire the next one, only just destroying it in time, but enabling the four remaining torpedoes to strike the Spirit of Xerksulus.
One by one, the torpedoes impacted the cruiser, two right in the engines, one going right through the starboard wing and one very close to the Ship Operations Center, killing much of the crew there, including Captain Sydrus Vakarian.
And soon enough, damage to the engines was so extensive, that energy levels were building up to dangerous levels within the engine room.

Despite efforts from the engineers to fix it, 6 torpedoes that were heading for the two other cruisers found the Spirit of Xerksulus within their tracks, and could not avoid it in time, so they instead continued on course, and slammed right into the cruiser, the explosions causing the drive core to overload, far too quickly for them to do anything, and soon, an massive explosion erupted right through the ship, destroying it.

On board the Estivus Erax, Captain Nyx and Commander Pentalus closed their eyes, in respect to Captain Sydrus Vakarian and the crew of the Spirit of Xerksulus, as the galaxy map displayed the images of the explosion that had erupted right behind the two cruisers.

But they soon quickly got to business when they spotted 2 torpedoes heading for Kurinth's Keen Sight and 4 torpedoes heading for the Estivus Erax.

Getting into contact with Captain Kesth'ra, Desolas advised to get targeting solutions ready for the dreadnought, while he did the same.
Kesth'ra nodded, and asked, "Alright, what are our targets?"
Desolas turned to Macen and told him to bring up analysis of the Rachni dreadnought.

Doing so, his First Officer soon started analysing the dreadnought, and with the Captain helping along, as well as Captain Kesth'ra offering advice, found potential targets.
"The starboard cannons. That's our target. If we can hit them, we can do a bit more damage to more weapon systems in our attack runs, buy us enough time to survive out there until the reinforcements arrive".

Captain Nyx asked, "Any objections?"
Kesth'ra shook her head, instead settling for "Let's get on with it then".

Throughout the two cruisers, the orders were given,
"Ready all guns and torpedoes!"

And soon, as rounds and torpedoes were primed, ready and loaded, the two cruisers began their attack, by getting into attack formation, with the operators told to acquire targeting solutions as soon as the dreadnought appeared in visual range.
Then, as the third planet and the dreadnought, appeared over the horizon, the operators acquired targeting solutions over the starboard cannons of the dreadnought, and the Captains soon gave the order,
"Open fire!"

Both the Estivus Erax and the Kurinth's Keen Sight, fired their cannons (firing 2 rounds each), then launched their torpedoes (5 launched from each cruiser), which all streaked across the gulf of space, closing the distance between themselves and the dreadnought, which made no attempt to defend itself.
But while the cannon rounds struck the massive kinetic barriers, they enabled the torpedoes to get past the kinetic barriers and cause significant damage to the starboard cannons.

Even though the crew of the cruisers cheered, their Captains knew it wasn't over yet, and just as they were about to make another slingshot attack, the dreadnought launched 10 torpedoes, 5 heading for the Estivus Erax and 5 heading for the Kurinth's Keen Sight.

Soon, they managed to reach the cruisers, and even though the laser defences and kinetic barriers destroyed most of the torpedoes, one or two still caused significant damage to both cruisers.
The Captains knew that they would not keep this up for long, and Captain Kesth'ra knew it was time to get that distress beacon launched, while they still had time.


Athame's Wisdom class cruiser Kurinth's Keen Sight, in orbit over Luna, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
19th March, 1918 CE.

Lieutenant Trileena Navuris walked down the wrecked corridors of the Kurinth's Keen Sight, as fast as she could, with an injured crew member leaning onto her, arm slung across her shoulders and all, and both Keilgara and Chethra doing the same, heading to the shuttle bay, where the rest of the 147th were, as well.

Alarms were blaring at their loudest level, as fire and smoke spread in the corridors, and it was getting hard to breath in some places, so much so, that they got their rebreather masks on.

Seeing this, Trileena put on her helmet, and was satisfied as the HUD showed that the seals were functioning properly.

Reaching the shuttle bay, waiting medics took the crew member from Trileena, and attended to Keilgara and Chethra's injured crew members, taking them from their arms as well.

Soon enough, the three Huntresses were fast at work helping along wounded crew members towards the shuttle bay, when a voice came calling for them.
Looking up and turning, Trileena, Keilgara and Chethra saw Major Arvena Thanoptis approaching them.

When the three of them saluted her, Major Thanoptis waved them off, and Trileena saw fit to report on their current situation, "Major, we're were just helping with the evacuation and...", before being cut off by the Major raising her hand for silence.

Then the Major said, "I've just been in contact with the bridge. They just finished up a message to the distress beacon and were about to launch when they sustained damage. They cannot launch the beacon from the bridge, and anyone close enough to the beacon is dead. Therefore, the task has fallen upon us, and I'm sending you, Lieutenant Navuris, to get to the Distress Beacon, and launching it".
"Understood, Major".
"It's a big task, and all our lives are depending on you. Can I count on you, Lieutenant?"
"Yes".
"Good. Now, get down to the beacon, we don't have much time. Hurry!"

At this, Trileena soon headed down to where the actual distress beacon was, all the while recalling from memory, the entire internal layout of the ship.

However, it was more difficult than expected, as many corridors were full of fires and non-functioning doors, so she had to take an unconventional route, by going below decks, to the engine room, and then crawling through ducts to get to the room that she needed to go.

After much crawling around the ducts, Trileena reached the room, where the distress beacon was in the tube, awaiting to be launched.

Reaching the controls near the tube, Trileena got into contact with the bridge.
"Okay, bridge, this is Lieutenant Trileena Navuris at the distress beacon. Now, what shall I do?"
A pause before, "Alright, Lieutenant, now listen closely, because we don't have a lot of time, and I'm not going to repeat myself".
With Trileena replying in an affirmative, the other side of the comm-link soon got to work, "Good, now, first things first, we're going to need you to open the tube hatch, which will allow the distress beacon to be launched. It's done by a lever quite near you. Do you see it?"
Trileena saw it, and said so to the bridge, before saying "I'm going to pull it".
The voice stopped her before she did so, "First, before you do that, you need to release the five safety pins on the lever, that'll enable you to pull it, and open the tube hatch. Understood, Lieutenant?"
"Yes".

With that, Trileena headed over to the lever, and started pulling out the safety pins on the lever, one by one, before she then pulled the lever down.
"DISTRESS BEACON TUBE DOOR OPEN".

Then she headed back to the controls and got back in contact with the bridge,
"Done".
"Alright. Now, you're going to need to input a set of numbers into the controls, before the Beacon can be launched. Now use the controls to begin the launch".
Pressing the controls, the console then told her to input the numbers, and Trileena relayed all this to the bridge.
"Good, now input the first set of numbers, but you need to listen to every number I say".
Acknowledging, Trileena soon started inputting the numbers that were said to her over on comms, and continued doing so, until the console acknowledged and the distress beacon, launched, rapidly leaving the tube right before her very eyes.
"DISTRESS BEACON LAUNCHED".

"Bridge, this is Lieutenant Trileena Navuris! Distress beacon has been launched! I repeat, distress beacon has been launched!"
"Alright, well done, Lieutenant, now..."
Static, and despite repeated attempts from Trileena, she couldn't raise the bridge again.

More explosions shook the ship, and soon, the Captain came onto the shipboard address,
"All hands, abandon ship! All hands, abandon ship!"

Eyes widening, knowing that the situation was that desperate, Trileena soon started making her way out and got onto the comms with Major Thanoptis, "Major, they're abandoning the ship…."
"Yes, I know, Lieutenant. I don't know how long this ship's going to last, but we cannot afford to wait for you. Find an nearby escape pod, and head to the nearby moon, and we'll await rescue".
"For how long, Major?"
"For as long as it takes, now go, Lieutenant!"

With the Major cutting off the comms, Trileena started to quicken her pace, as she crawled through the ducts.
Leaving the last of the ducts, then exiting the engine room, Trileena soon navigated her way through the labyrinth of wrecked corridors to a section of escape pods.

It wasn't easy. Some corridors were blocked by debris or fire or both, forcing her to try longer routes around, but as she went through one corridor, which she knew, was close to the section of escape pods, a light exploded above her head, and Trileena had to duck her head to get out of the way, before continuing onwards.

Then, around the corner, there they were, a row of around five escape pods, and people were getting into four of them, and closing their doors (meaning that the maximum capacity of the pods was full on the four pods).
So Trileena headed to an escape pod that was the furthest one, and seeing as there was no one else coming, shut the door and began inputting commands into the pod (skipping the automatic launch, and instead going for a guided launch).
Setting a course for the moon, Trileena was advised to get herself into a safety harness, and therefore, she locked herself in.

And just in time too, as the explosions that she had been feeling off in the distance, were starting to become way much more frequent and more violent.
Thus she reckoned that the ship was not going to hold out much longer, so he issued the command for the pod to launch.

And immediately, she felt herself being pushed to one side, as the main thrusters expelled the pod from the cruiser.

All Trileena had to do, was sit back and let the pod take it's plotted course to the moon, and await touchdown.

But then, the explosions on the Kurinth's Keen Sight suddenly erupted right through the ship, and as they destroyed the cruiser, caused a massive shockwave, that knocked several escape pods, that were lagging behind, off course.

And one of those escape pods, included Trileena, who noticed that she was deviating way off course, heading straight for the planet.
"Warning! Thruster failure. Pod is unable to manoeuvre".

Oh goddess

She was definitely in trouble now.


Ship Operations Center, Estivus Erax class cruiser Estivus Erax, in orbit over Luna, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
19th March, 1918 CE.

Captain Desolas Nyx and Commander Macen Pentalus watched the Galaxy map in horror as the Kurinth's Keen Sight exploded.

Several pods, and shuttles, were struck by the massive shockwave that followed after the explosion, taking significant damage. And some were sent spiralling way off course from their intended course towards the moon, into various directions. And some exploded.

But Captain Nyx had no time to mourn, as he ordered that a volley be readied, a target solution acquired, and then that volley fired.

Down below decks, rounds were loaded.
Then in the Ship Operations Center, Offensive System Operators were acquiring targeting solutions onto the dreadnought.

But just as he was finishing up with the targeting solutions, an operator shouted, "Dreadnought has fired torpedoes!"

And Nyx saw them. 10 torpedoes, fast approaching the cruiser.

Seeing that they were closing the distance in no time at all, he shouted,
"Activate defences!"

And soon, the laser turrets started acquiring the incoming torpedoes.
7 of them were destroyed, but 3 were still incoming.

With the laser turrets having been occupied, Captain Nyx had little defensive options other than, "Raise kinetic barriers!"
However, Macen shouted, "Too late!", as the torpedoes struck the cruiser, wrecking the Ship Operations Center and killing much of the crew in it.


Personnel Escape Capsule D09, on approach to Earth's atmosphere, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
19th March, 1918 CE.

Despite the computer voice announcing thruster failure and that the pod was unable to manoeuvre, Trileena was still determined to get herself out of the tricky spot that she had gotten herself into.
Trileena attempted to manoeuver her pod, but she couldn't reach the override controls from her position.

And worse of all, she couldn't unlock her harness in order to reach them, as the computer locked them for the duration until they landed.
So it was just a matter of holding on as her pod was spiralling out of control, towards the third planet in this system.

The voice's next announcement came as a complete shock to her, as she hadn't expected that they had covered so much ground so soon (She must have been trying to do everything to manoeuvre her pod, so much so that time just seemed to fly by for her).
"Alert! Pod is about to enter atmosphere".

As she felt the immense shaking of the pod that made it feel like the pod could break apart at any moment, as the pod went through the atmosphere, Trileena made a prayer to the goddess as she clutched her harness tightly, and closed her eyes.


Ship Operations Center, Estivus Erax class cruiser Estivus Erax, in orbit over Luna, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
19th March, 1918 CE.

Junior 1st Lieutenant Tyven Ghyx limped his way onto the Ship Operations Center, and saw absolute destruction.

Captain Desolas Nyx and Commander Macen Pentalus were dead, as their wounds were fatal. That much was certain.

His friend, Junior 1st Lieutenant Astitus Hyrx, over by a wrecked sensor console, shouted over to him "Tyven!"
Heading over there, Tyven saw that Astitus was really badly burnt on his plates and he was clutching his right arm very tightly.
"Asti! Are you okay?"

Grunting, Tyven realised that it was a bit of a really stupid question, but Astitus did reply, "Yeah, I'll live", before he tried to get himself up, saying "C'mon, Tyven, we've got to get this cruiser out of here. She won't last long in the open".
"But Asti! You're wounded, you should seek medical attention!"
"Everyone on this ship is in need of medical attention! But that's not important! Listen, we need to get this cruiser out of here, then we need to draw the dreadnought out, and hopefully do some damage. Take me to the helm, and we'll see if anyone can function the weaponry".
"If it's still working".
A few coughs from Astitus and "Yeah, well, we can only hope, Tyven".


British trenches, near Havrincourt, France, Europe, Earth, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
19th March, 1918 CE.

It was a silent night, down in the trenches, for the men of the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

They had been holding positions down in this sector, which was one part of the the line being held by the British Third Army, from Arras to Flesquières, but on this late night, they were quite exhausted, struggling to keep their eyes open, especially on a night like this, which just seemed very peaceful.

But while the men, who were really wishing to be in their billets in Metz-en-Couture right about now, a really bright light was fast approaching them from the sky.

One soldier, pointed this out to some of his mates, who were trying their utmost to get their rest, and cursed him for interrupting their sleep, when the bright light, brighter than an illumination flare, now engulfed the entire area, sending the entire trench into an uproar.

The bright light, even though it was about to crash in No Man's Land, was so hot that the men in the trenches could really feel the scorching heat of the object coming down, miles away.
They almost felt like they were getting burnt, so no one could really blame them, for actually jumping down onto the ground and hugging it for dear life.

But soon, the bright light vanished, the area turning into darkness once again, as the object crashed and sent a massive cloud of dirt in it's wake.


Personnel Escape Capsule D09, No Man's Land, near Havrincourt, France, Sol System, Local Cluster, Milky Way.
19th March, 1918 CE.

As she braced herself through the atmospheric entry, and prayed that the pod would hold, Trileena Navuris made another prayer, hoping to land on solid ground.
Then the pod hit something at least and tumbled all over.

Trileena opened her eyes and heard alarms blasting in the pod.
One thing she did notice, was that the pod was on it's right side, giving how gravity was making her lean forward towards the harness.

Unlatching her harness, after some difficulty, she slowly got out of her seat and put her feet where the floor of the pod was currently at, essentially the harnesses on the right side of the pod.

However, before she got herself to the door, she removed her helmet slowly, before she checked the computers, to try to determine if the planet's atmosphere was breathable for Asari.
Praying that they were still functional, she pressed the buttons on the computers and her prayers were answered when the computer read out the composition of the atmosphere.
"Air is breathable for Asari. I repeat, air is breathable for Asari".

Breathing a sigh of relief, Trileena soon went over to the front of the pod and broke out the Emergency Survival Kit, taking stock on what the pod had.

An survival sidearm (with an detachable underslung barrel with a pistol grip that could fire flares, a mounted laser sight and laser cutter, and a small dagger contained in the handgrip), a multipurpose knife, a first aid kit, a thermal sleeping bag, a stretching sheet for cover from rain and weather, signal mirror, compass, three glow sticks with green, orange and yellow capsules, and six days of rations (which were meant to be shared amongst the personnel of the pod, and allow them to survive for three days). There was also a distress beacon, along with a communications rig, a portable cooker (which she all checked, and found that they worked) and a water dispenser with enough water for three days (and one flask).

Attaching her helmet to a magnetic connector on her waist, holstering the sidearm on her back and the knife by her right boot, and taking the signal mirror, compass, and the glow sticks, Trileena elected to go and scope out the area and see if there was any wildlife to hunt.
Normally, standard policy was that the occupants of the escape pod were to stay exactly where they were, unless they absolutely had the need to, and that they were to establish a shelter first before going out to hunt.
Trileena felt that it was essential to go and catch something sooner, rather than later, and besides her pod had survived intact, so she had a shelter to go to.

Getting to the door, she pressed a series of buttons to open the door.
Trileena growled, as the automatic doors failed to open, even after pressing them again and again.

So, she opened the hatch to a lever that would enable her to use manual override to open the doors.
Pulling the lever, a hand crank appeared and Trileena started winding the handle one way, which started slowly opening the doors.
And soon, the doors opened, and Trileena got herself out of the pod.

Her boots made contact with the ground, which to her luck, was quite solid and hard. But as her eyes adjusted to the dark, she immediately saw devastation, all around her. Very familiar devastation that wouldn't have looked out of place on some battlefield halfway across the galaxy.
Craters, destroyed trees, no wildlife of any kind whatsoever.

Trileena knew that she was in the midst of a war zone.

And as she withdraw her survival sidearm and gripped the pistol grip and handgrip, holding it close, she also obtained further proof that this was a war zone, when she came across a body on the ground, dressed in a greyish cloth uniform, wearing a steel helmet as well as a strange mask of some kind (coloured grey also, and with clear plastic eye pieces, one of which was broken) and holding a strange rifle in it's hands, that looked like it was made of wood, but had a lot of metal parts, including a small handle.
Curious, she grabbed the strange mask and pulled it off, to reveal quite a horrifying sight, that made her flinch and drop the mask as she scrambled back a bit.

A rotting, decomposing face, with small wiggling lifeforms of some kind, having made their home within the face of this dead soldier.

Taking a few deep breaths, in and out, Trileena soon perked her head up, at the sound of what seemed to be, machine gun fire, and the faint sounds of screaming that soon turned to an ever present quiet.

Resolving to not get into contact with whoever, was out here, Trileena moved away from the sound and made good progress, all the while keeping an eye on her surroundings, and the ground (an instinct that she had been ingrained with due to years of fighting the Rachni).

Eventually, she came across a long fence, of multiple wires with some very sharp points on them, with four stakes of wood (presumably holding the whole thing together) near her.
Putting down her sidearm and detaching the underslung grenade launcher, Trileena began using the laser cutter to cut the wires.
The first wire went, then the next one, then the next.

And soon enough, after reattaching the underslung grenade launcher to her sidearm, which she holstered, she cleared away the wire, to get herself down, into what was seemingly a big trench.

Climbing down, she then began exploring the trench, ever mindful to be careful of the wooden plank boards under her feet, but still analysing the trench, which just seemed to be inactive.
A shout came from behind her, and her quick reflexes enabled her to turn around and see another soldier, this one wearing a really mud-stained, dull olive green cloth uniform, and a bowl-like metal helmet, and carrying a long-strange rifle as well.

But Trileena immediately saw it time to get out of here and rushed the soldier, who raised his rifle up to his shoulder and was about to fire when Trileena closed the distance between them, and slapped the rifle from his hands, before grabbing him and slamming him against a sheet of ridged metal, producing a really loud clang.
She attempted to climb herself out of the trench, but soon, found herself being grabbed by a very strong pair of hands.

Falling down back into the trench, Trileena found that while the soldier that she had knocked out, was completely out of it, there was another soldier, who had prevented her escape.
Throwing some hard punches at his jaw, she definitely could see some teeth had been knocked out.
Then, Trileena threw in a kick at his boots, and the soldier, fell over into the ground.

Getting up, Trileena attempted to get herself out of the trench, only for more soldiers to arrive, presumably having heard all the commotion and went to see what was going on.
Immediately, all of them froze, upon seeing her, and Trileena exploited it, rushing towards them and throwing punches and kicks that would have made her instructors proud (she didn't really get the chance to use them lately, so the fact that she had picked up on the skills taught to her many years ago, after years of fighting Rachni, an enemy that wasn't ideal for close-quarters combat, was quite impressive, if she said so herself).

However, unarmed combat could only do so much, as one soldier came up and smacked the buttstock of his rifle right into her face, knocking her out.


Well, Trileena is now on Earth, and definitely has not made a good impression with the locals, all while the Estivus Erax is the only surviving ship against the Rachni dreadnought.

Man, you have no idea how difficult it is to write a space battle with cruisers that just won't stand up to a dreadnought on it's own, but yet, I can't make it completely a cakewalk for the Rachni, as the Captains of the cruisers try and use ingenious tactics to do some damage of their own (and even that only goes so far).

Trileena's survival sidearm is not a pistol, if anyone is wondering. It's more like a automatic rifle with the body of a shotgun, able to attach an underslung grenade launcher that can fire flares.

Anyways, Don't forget to leave a review whenever you can, and see you next time!