HOLOCAUST

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO:

I AM HIS INSTRUMENT PART FOUR

August 6, 2186

0729 hours.

Forward Entrance, Aria's Bunker, Tuhi District, Omega.

Second War for Omega, Battle of the Tuhi District.

Chief Engineer Tali'Shepard vas Normandy, Soldier Javik, Second Lieutenant Imogen Keeling, Second Lieutenant James Vega, Major Kaidan Alenko, EDI, Moses.

They simply didn't stop coming.

At this point, Tali was convinced Petrovsky was fielding an army at least thousands in strength. That was the only explanation she could find to justify why so many troops were being thrown at them en masse, with so many mechs, armor and aircraft in support. Fighters and bombers screaming overhead, artillery shells pounding the bunker from afar, gunfire from both sides turning the bridge into a killing field, the mechanical thuds of D-09 Atlas exoskeletons advancing, the silent convergence of dozens of Rampart mechs and the thrums of Mantis gunships and Kodiak shuttles. The entire scene in the Tuhi district was chaos...complete mayhem as the two opposing sides went head-to-head, both determined to demonstrate their strength, raw power and tactical knowledge. It was a deadly game...and at this point, Cerberus looked to be winning in the numerical front.

They...just keep...coming...

The recent wave of enemy troops had been a line of eight Rampart mechs, their tech armor active and deflecting most of their projectiles as they fired back with their M-22 Eviscerator shotguns and M-25 Hornet SMGs. They barely staggered, the impact of concussion rounds and incendiary projectiles apparently the only thing to observably halt their movement, and even then only momentarily. Infront, a trio of guardians, shields scraping along the ground as the soldiers moved forward in their crouched position, the audibly cancerous sound of metal rubbing against metal piercing her eardrums and forcing her to switch to internal comms to hear and deliver orders, the sound becoming too distracting to withstand. Behind the ramparts was a combat engineer, and a group of assault troopers: the combat engineer wasn't firing back, content to duck behind the guardians and mechs and use his omni-tool to cause havoc amongst their defenses, while the assault troopers ocassionally came out to fire at them.

They were halfway across the bridge now, and so far they hadn't managed to kill a single one of them: their shield formation was simply too well fortified, and with a lack of snipers to aid them (the last one having been killed by a nemesis earlier), there was nobody to accurately make use of the slits in the guardian's shields.

"They get any closer, and they'll kill the engineers," Tali stated. The engineers in question were still working on getting the turrets online, as they had continued to run into obstacles in that endeavour: not only was the turret's technology hilariously outdated, it didn't help that several Cerberus combat engineers had interfered in their attempts, forcing the engineers to fight them off before they could renew their work. Thus far, they were close, but not close enough, "We need to break their line, and we need to do it now. We kill those guardians, and that should do it."

Keeling nodded, popping up for a moment to fire at a guardian, attempting to aim down the slit. She barely appeared for a second before the ramparts fired upon her, shields cracking and bursting, forcing her to duck again, cursing. She shook her head, frustrated at her inability to fill out her assigned task, "Can't pop up for more than two seconds before they start bombarding you. They've also got nemesi moving into support, so we're soon going to have snipers to worry about too."

"Keelah," Tali exclaimed, wracking her shotgun. She tried to think of a plan, but nothing was coming to mind. They could probably have Kaidan and Javik use their biotics, but again, they would get gunned down before they could. Moses was a hulking death machine, but without proper support, his firepower would be rendered useless by the guardians. Without the turrets to provide suppressing fire, they couldn't use that either. Grenades were the only option...but again, they'd get torn apart by gunfire before they could even prime a single one.

Marcus would know what to do...think, Tali. Think. Biotics are out. Grenades are out. Sniping them is out. What else can we use to take down a guardian?

Then it dawned on her. Of course! Stupid, why didn't I think of that before!?

She quickly turned to Moses, tapping their comm channel, "Moses, is your drone recharged?"

The geth was quick to reply, "Yes, Tali."

She nodded, reaching behind her to pluck out her own, "Good. I need you to deploy yours at the same time I deploy mine. We need to get this right the first time...they need to spawn directly behind the guardian line. With luck, we can stun them, giving us enough time to quickly kill them. Without those guardians, their entire line will be vulnerable."

The geth prime nodded in affirmation, reaching behind to its back to retrieve its own drone, the small sphere in its hand looking comically tiny compared to its enormous appendage, "We are ready to deploy when you are, Tali."

Peeking out, she noticed the enemy was now almost on their side. The screeching of the metal-on-metal contact had gotten far closer, and Tali didn't fail to notice the pair of EMP grenades hurling through the air towards them. Just as they appeared however, Javik grabbed them, flinging them downwards and back into the enemy. Tali smiled as the ramparts seized up as the pair of grenades intended for the geth detonated among the eight mechs, dropping their weapons as they collapsed to the ground, tech armor evaporating and red optics dimming until they were completely dark, all of them hitting the ground with numerous clangs. The assault troopers were startled, while the combat engineer suddenly leapt back, startled as his omni-tool suddenly deactivated due to the blasts.

Perfect.

"Now!" she shouted, standing up and taking advantage of the gap in enemy fire. She tossed the drone right behind the enemy guardians, who were now close enough for her to make an accurate throw. She dropped back behind her part of the safety barrier, watching as Moses stood and tossed his as well, the Stalker-class combat drone joining her Chiktika on the ground behind them, the Cerberus hoplites seemingly not noticing them as they continued their path.

The two drones spun to life, their micro-holographic projectors materializing the illusion of solid mass, an orange sphere appearing around Chiktika while a more purple one appeared around Moses' drone.

Smiling, she opened her omni-tool and linked it up to her drone, watching Moses do the same on the opposite side. Bringing up her drone's command script, she set up its assault parameters as disrupt-and-harass. Her job complete, she turned away from her omni-tool to watch as Chiktika spun to the nearest guardian, sending a high voltage jolt of electricity straight into the back of the nearest enemy target. Moses' Stalker did the same with its own target, instead sending a superheated incineration projectile as substitute, as it operated on a completely different attack script runtime.

Chitika's target stumbled backwards and cried out, falling flat on his shield as he landed on the deck, spasming and shaking violently as the electricity reacted brutally with his cybernetics, leaving him a useless, jibbering wreck. Moses' target faired far worse, body instantaneously flash burned by the impact, dropping his shield as he dropped to the ground, rolling back and forth as he tried to put out the flames.

It was all they needed.

"Now!" Kaidan barked, shooting up, assault rifle already lowered, "Take them down!"

None of the UGC defenders wasted any time in taking advantage of the enemy's blunder. Tali appeared in a second, shotgun raised and distributing twin bolts of joined plasma from the barrel, watching as they slowly, but at the same time rapidly, tore into the back of the electrocuted guardian, body going still instantly, blood squirting in the opposite direction from the impact. Moses stood up, pulse cannon immediately blowing away the flaming trooper, the top part of his torso simply disappearing in a white and red mist, blood and gore all that was left, as well as a pair of disembodied, twitching legs.

The third and last guardian didn't know what to do with himself, choosing to simply stop and return fire with his high-powered Talon pistol. EDI stumbled as the powerful slugs tore apart her shields, forcing her to crouch and recharge. The guardian didn't survive very long however, Javik and Keeling combining their fire to tear into his exposed flank, high velocity rounds and hot particle energy shredding flesh and melting armor. He collapsed, just like the rest of the Cerberus column.

Moses' Minotaur pulse cannon easily dealt with the disabled and helpless Rampart mechs, the balls of plasma decimating them one by one, sending shards of molten debris flying in all directions as they exploded, the remains of their shotguns and SMGs flying from the bombardment due to the force of the bursts. James' Revenant peppered the combat engineer's shields until they broke, eventually causing his head to snap back as the first burst of rounds bypassed the now inactive shields and tore into his face, neck and ribcage. His golden visor shattered as the bullets bore a path through his skull, embedding deep inside. Another burst tore chunks out of his throat, sending blood spurting everywhere, the display akin to that of a painter tossing a paint bucket's contents through the air. The rest shredded his chestplate, sending him onto his back, dead, blood flowing like a fountain, the sticky substance swarming the boots of his assault trooper guard contingent, who quickly began a hasty retreat, only for the geth shock troopers to finish them off.

And thus the latest wave of Cerberus troops was repulsed. Flames continued to lick away at the now still corpse of the third guardian, while steam continued to rise into the air from the gaping hole her shotgun had made in the back of the first guardian, the flesh and gore around the entry wound blackened, shrivelled and reeking. Bits and pieces of metal and circuitry that once been eight mechs littered the bridge, mingling in with the dozens upon dozens of bodies that had also made their home there. So far, the Cerberus assault had been costly and induced heavy casualties, but it hadn't been without its boons.

Able to take a breather, Tali slumped back, panting slightly as she wracked back the slot on her shotgun, readying a fresh plasma discharge. She desperately wanted to tear her visor off so she could wipe at the sweat collecting across her body, but she had no choice but to make do with her suit's scrubbers, hoping they'd get rid of the sweat soon. Keeling, having barely broken a sweat herself, ordered the shock troopers on their side to reform, assuming a fresh formation so that they constantly kept Cerberus guessing. Javik remained in a crouched position, running a hand over his particle rifle, checking for any damage.

On the other side, Kaidan was ordering their group of shock troopers and drones around, following Keeling's example. James was now prone, finding a comfortable position with a sight line on the bridge that wouldn't leave him completely vulnerable. EDI crouched beside him, running her omni-tool across the entire group, likely checking for injuries and ensuring nobody was seriously hurt. The quarian engineers continued their work undeterred, barely paying attention to the battle going on around them.

Cerberus' assaults had made their mark, without a doubt. While they were repulsed again and again, the UGC was slowly running out of ammo, and had suffered casualties of their own: two primes dead, almost a squad of geth troopers...and, more recently, an Atlas had gotten lucky and managed to disable the geth tank, scoring a missile hit on its side that forced it to retreat inside for repairs: without it, they would remain vulnerable to further Atlas attacks. What was worse was that they had to use up the last of their heavy weapon ammo dealing with said Atlas...meaning they were now helpless against aircraft or enemy armor without the tank.

Too busy paying attention to the ground and regaining her breath, she hadn't noticed a shadow arrive at her side until she looked up. Kaidan landed in a crouch beside her, his assault rifle holstered and tech armor disabled and recharging, the marine having removed his HYPERION-82 helmet and attached it to his hip, "That last wave got really close, Tali. I don't know how much longer we can hold out. Another few waves...with the tank out, they could launch an all out assault and they'd probably overrun us. We need a game changer, and we need it soon."

She nodded lazily, managing to compose herself enough to grip her shotgun more tightly, sitting up, "I know, Kaidan. Mark said he's organizing with Aria on how best to defend the bunker...could be he's planning a counterattack to push Cerberus back. At the moment, Cerberus more than likely thinks we're the invasion force...if we can keep them thinking that for a while longer, we can surprise them. We just have to trust Mark can get it done."

He nodded, laughing bitterly, "I get that, Tali. I trust Marcus as much as you do, but that doesn't change facts. Any further attacks, and we're done. We'll have no choice but to fall back unless we get reinforcements."

She sighed, sniffling slightly. It was then she realized she had a sharp pain in her side, and she groaned as she looked down, rising her veil to find a large blotch of red blood staining her side. From here, she could clearly see bare skin, and surmized due to the pain she was receiving that she had likely been shot at some point during the last wave...or perhaps it was the one before it. Either way, she'd been shot.

I was probably caught up on so much adrenaline that I didn't notice it. Need to patch this up before I get a fever.

Turning from Kaidan, she grabbed a pair of plyers from one of her suit pockets and, biting down on her lip, quickly plunged it in, latching it around the bullet. She screamed inwardly, drawing blood as her teeth pierced her bottom lip, the almost blinding pain causing a black blur to appear at the edge of her vision. With the bullet secured she yanked it out, looking dizzily at the blood soaked projectile before tossing it away, wiping away any blood on her veil and placing the plyers back in her pocket. Quickly grabbing medi-gel, she slapped a large blob across the wound, rubbing it in and feeling a cold, cool feeling begin to fall over her. The pain slowly evaporated, and Tali felt the blackness retreat as she sighed in relief. With the wound addressed and no longer bleeding, she tossed away the used packet, activating her omni-tool and, whilst holding the two parts of ruptured suit together, beginning to stitch it back together.

After a minute, the suit breach was dealt with, the quarian deactivating her omni-tool and looking back up at Kaidan, who was still present and looking at her with concern. She waved him off dismissively, laughing with some genuine amusement, "Keelah Kaidan, how much of a rookie do you think I am? I've been doing this for three years...I'm used to suit breaches now. I'll be fine." Her combat drone soon returned to her, collapsing into her palm, placing it back into her pocket and tapping it gently to make sure Chiktika was safe and sound. Good girl. You did good.

The marine craned his head in acknowledgement of her point, but refused to budge regardless, "Yeah, but just because I'm used to being shot doesn't mean I'm okay with it either. Was it a critical wound?"

Despite the fact he obviously couldn't see her raised eyebrows, she did so anyway, rolling the hip on that side exaggeratively, "Do you think I deal in euphemisms, Kaidan? If I couldn't fight, I would tell you. Right now, the most I'll get is a runny nose: some clogged sinuses. Turns out all that...uh...you know what I mean."

He hastily nodded, letting Tali know that he was very much in agreement on her not going any further, "Yeah, I get it. Just be ready. No doubt the enemy will be making another push any second now, and we need this flank secure."

Keeling piped up in Tali's defense, "She's got me, Javik and a few geth and drones to back us up. You can be sure the left flank is locked tight. A few wounds aren't going to keep us down," she turned to Tali, cocking her head as a motion of encouragement, "Although it would be nice for those turrets to be actually doing something. You know, like lessening the load for us."

She glared back at the N7, understanding her frustration but not in the mood for it, "My engineers are doing the best they can. Cerberus bosh'tets are hardly making it any easier for us. Constant waves of them and their engineers are making it nearly impossible to concentrate."

"They have no choice!" Javik grunted, now gripping his rifle tightly and keeping a close eye on the bridge for any would-be surprises, "They must focus all their attention on those turrets! Motivate them, if you must! There can be no victory for the weak!"

"Yes, thank you Javik," Kaidan dryly replied, shaking his head and rolling his eyes, "But you're not helping. All we can do is hold down the fort and hope we get some turrets to chew up Cerberus troops soon. Until then, a tight formation, some medi-gel and a bunch of stims are all we can rely upon."

"Major Alenko," EDI announced, gaining the soldier's attention, "Moses has spotted two more enemy squads approaching from the other side. They have an Atlas mech moving into support them, as well as another line of guardians. Their assault troopers are armed with grenade launchers, and one centurion has an unidentified weapon. I have a run check on what I know about Cerberus weaponry, and it appears to be M-622 Cryogenic Projector Weapon System."

James scoffed over the comm, audibly unsurprised by the weapon's obvious purpose, "Let me guess...its a big ice gun?"

"A crude nickname, but it does have a reasonable application in this case," EDI replied, "Cerberus Skunkworks was working on a prototype as part of Project Avalanche. When I defected, it was still in field testing stages. It appears Doctor Miles Ruberick managed to perfect the design. When in testing stages, it was nicknamed the 'Avalanche.'"

Kaidan rushed back over to the right flank, careful to keep his head down and out of view of any snipers as he made his return, "So what can we expect from this 'Avalanche' weapon? What are its capabilities? Obviously, it fires ice."

"Yes, its based on existing cryo round technology," EDI elaborated, "However, it does not 'fire ice'. The weapon, for instance, is not filled with water. Instead, a cooling laser is fired from the barrel at a target. This laser then collapses the ammunition into Bose-Einstein condensate, a mass of super cooled subatomic particles. These snap freeze when impacting a target, which produces the effect of 'cryogenically freezing' the object in question. The weapon is lethal when used against organics, as the sudden drop in temperature around an organic will kill them instantly: against machines, they will be frozen. Given how military omni-tools and weapons have cryo rounds installed, the Avalanche has an added 'area of effect', where it can freeze an entire squad at once using a mass effect generated containment bubble that, once popped, exponentially magnifies the blast radius."

Silence for a few moments, followed by a whistle from James, "So...basically kill the puta before he gets a chance to use it? Fine by me."

"I recommend attempting to destroy the weapon, not the user," EDI suggested, a slight smile forming on her face. It looked like the AI had finally managed to make a smile that didn't look creepy or sadistic, "Doing so, in theory, should cause a collapse of the cryogenic containment chamber and collapse the bubble. Basically, the gun will explode, flash freezing the wielder and everyone around them."

Tali smiled, liking the sound of it. Use their weapon against them without even using it. Just what they deserve.

"You know what to do then," Kaidan ordered, turning to Keeling, "Sharpshooters, keep an eye out for that centurion. You seem, pour what fire you can into that Avalanche heavy weapon of his. We're going to kill Mr. Freeze."

"I can't believe I just heard that joke."

"Shut your mouth, James. I thought it was appropriate."

"I have relayed the joke to Jeff," EDI stated. A few seconds later, she shrugged, "Jeff has replied. He says 'leave the jokes to the Joker', Major Alenko."

The marine waved a dismissive hand, shaking his head, "You guys are no fun."

"Hostiles approaching!" Moses blared.

"Here come your traitors!" Javik spat, standing up and opening fire, the thrum of his particle-based weapon the first gunshot to be heard of the new wave, "Time to kill them all!"

As the geth and prothean announced, the first squad of Cerberus troops made their attack. Five guardians this time, approaching in the same phalanx as their predecessors had, trudged forward, shields scraping against the bridge's deck. Eight assault troopers, two combat engineers and a dragoon advanced behind the guardians, moving in two columns behind them of five each: four troopers and one combat engineer to each column. Their centurion came up behind them, wielding his Avalanche. The weapon was quite large: almost the size of the M-920 Cain. The barrel was the largest point: a short, but wide, cylinder with numerous, blue coolant pipes stretching from the main chamber in the back to connect with it. It glowed brightly, illuminating its destructive potential.

The second enemy squad wasn't far behind: no guardians, but ten assault troopers, five phantoms and two more centurions. Not far behind, the rthymic stomping of an Atlas, the large, powerful exosuit slowly advancing onto the bridge, massive main gun lowered, but its pilot very much focused on his enemies ahead of him. The stomping became small tremors, the mech's enormous weight distributed unevenly on the bridge as each step created its own, mini-earthquake.

"Guardians, forward. Centurion, fire the avalanche!" the Atlas pilot shouted from the cockpit, revealed to be a centurion controlling it instead of the usual assault trooper. His voice was amplified by the mech's in-built PA, allowing it to echo across and be heard by both sides, ally and enemy.

"Quick, take it down!" Kaidan snapped, and as one, they all rose.

Javik's particle rifle and Moses' minotaur pulse cannon was staggering the guardians' shields, but not making an actual dent. Noting this, they switched their attentions to the centurion, who was now aiming into the air, making a rough estimate as to how the Avalanche's burst would arc towards the UGC forces without having to break cover. A few seconds more, and he would be able to fire.

The UGC made sure that didn't happen.

The hail of gunfire focused on one target made sure that no matter how dense the shield formation was, it wasn't going to save their centurion heavy. The centurion's shields broke, but in the end, it was a pulse rifle burst from one of the shock troopers that pierced the barrel of the weapon, causing the centurion to stumble back, finger leaving the trigger in surprise.

He didn't get time to shout.

The effect was instant. They all had to blink as there was a massive flash, blinding them all temporarily. It was momentary, and it only lasted a second, but it felt like a flashbang had gone off. A second after the fact, the form of the centurion was frozen stiff, one leg raised in the air, head back and arms rearing backwards in a still snapshot of his last moments. Around him, encasing him in a sort of non-biotic stasis, was a thin layer of ice, still cracking and creaking from its recent creation. What was left of the weapon was scattered all over the place, the explosion having encased its parts in ice as well, but still having torn it apart.

The centurion wasn't the only victim: EDI hadn't been lying when she said it had an area of effect. The guardians right infront of him were stuck in their phalanx, having been blasted from behind and cryogenically frozen, the shields encased around their fists and immovable. All eight of the assault troopers were also frozen, but they had, still stuck in their last pre-freeze state, fallen to the ground, knocked over from the blast's shockwave. The only survivors were the two engineers, who hadn't escaped completely unscatched: they groaned as they desperately tried to stand up, their feet stuck to the ground and encased in ice. All along the bridge, around the entire area the first squad had been standing in, was nothing but ice...it was almost as if a section of Noveria had been torn out and dumped on the bridge. Tali even felt chills all the way from where she was...the cold was that prominent.

Not waiting to see if the effects were permanent, Moses opened fire with his pulse cannon. Their frozen forms came apart like glass being smashed, shards of ice exploding into the air only to melt into boiled water as they were instantly melted by the superheated plasma rounds. Tali winced as hot water dripped onto her visor, the heat felt even through her visor. Thanks to the few well placed shots, all the ice immediately evaporated, either flying into the air as water or released as a steamy, hot cloud into the air, looking much like the aftermath of a hot shower. Those frozen were vaporized, and those that weren't had their frozen guts and dead flesh blasted all over the bridge. The only ones to survive were the two combat engineers, and they were quickly gunned down by Kaidan, Keeling and Javik.

So far, Tali was impressed. EDI made a good call. Managed to wipe out an entire enemy squad without more than a few bullets being fired. Overall, a few good kills. But we've still got to deal with that second squad.

"Ignore them, press forward! Charge!" the Atlas commander barked, the sound of marching turning into frantic, running footsteps. As the steam cleared, white and gold armor appeared, running across the bridge desperately, "Kill them all! For Omega!"

"Shit! Fire, fire!" Kaidan frantically ordered, taken by surprise due to the sudden Cerberus change in tactics, "Don't let them cross! Moses, focus on that Atlas! Don't let it close that distance! Tali, we need those damn turrets online now!"

Tali nodded, turning to her engineers, "We're out of time! Turrets, online, now!"

"Almost there..." they replied, "We're so close...just a few more minutes..."

She growled angrily, grabbing one of them by the shoulders and roughly turning him around to face her, "We do not have a few more minutes! Our position is about to be overrun!"

"There's nothing we can do!" he shouted in reply, holding up his hands defensively.

Keelah, damn it! There must be something...without those turrets we-

She stopped for a moment, frowning. Letting go of the engineer, he turned back and poked her head out, watching the enemy getting dangerously close. A few troopers fell in their charge, joining the rest of the corpses already there, but otherwise, kept moving. The Atlas was halfway across, its main gun turning out to be a heavy machine gun as it rose that arm and tore apart three shock troopers and a couple of drones, their destroyed wrecks crashing into the ground as the high velocity rounds shredded them.

But Tali didn't see them...her eyes blurred out everything in her peripheral vision, her mind now solely focused on one thing...

...the bridge.

The bridge...of course! Why didn't I think of that before!

It's retractable!

She wasted no time relaying her intentions to Kaidan: there was no time for that. Cerberus would be on them in seconds, and it was clear those turrets wouldn't be active anytime soon. Taking a huge gamble, she whipped out her omni-tool, found the necessary control module and immediately hacked into it...to her immense relief, she concluded that Cerberus hadn't seen the tactical use in this function and had taken no action to set up firewalls around it.

Their mistake.

With one tap, she watched with glee as her command was accepted. On their side, the retracting belt began to spin, and the numerous gears inside the bridge's mechanisms began to spin, grinding loudly and groaning as metal began to move and shift. The numerous blocked 'sections' began to peel away like an apple's skin, looking like pieces on a board being sliced away. The entire bridge began retracting over to their side, splitting its connection with the courtyard and, as a result, removing Cerberus' only way across on foot. Tali watched with restrained glee as the third Cerberus squad moving to reinforce the second's charge was suddenly cut off at the last second, the leading centurion managing to stop himself just short of running off into the chasm below.

The second squad didn't notice until it was too late. The Atlas commander had almost reached their side when the bridge slid out from under him. The mech groaned as it suddenly found itself in weightless free fall, its left leg skidding off the edge and sending the massive mech too a long, far away death. In moments, the massive war machine was gone, and in moments, its troopers followed suit. What few assault troopers made it to the other side were quickly gunned down, barely able to mount a proper resistance to their new fate. The rest of their comrades fell off the edge to their doom, screaming as they were helpless to stop their descent.

The bridge finished retracting, the gears and mechanisms going silent as the blocks came to rest beneath their feet. All the corpses that had gathered on the bridge had also fallen when the bridge retracted, effectively clearing it of any obstacles and obstructions. The third enemy squad fired at them from where they were, but quickly gave up when they realized the UGC defenders could simply hide behind cover. They stood there, looking across at their enemy that was, for now at least, untouchable.

Tali applauded herself for her quick thinking, but then chastized herself for not thinking it sooner. Could have stopped a lot of those casualties if I'd retracted that bridge sooner. Still, at least we've stopped Cerberus from getting across and given ourselves a proper breather. That should stop their assault right in its tracks.

Sitting back down again, she shouted over to Kaidan, holding a thumbs up, "You can thank me later, Kaidan!"

Keeling walked over to the quarian, squeezing her shoulder and smiling at her, "That was quick thinking, Tali. Excellent work."

"I hope those traitors enjoyed their fall," their prothean comrade smirked, nodding in appreciation at Tali. Given how the prothean looked when he did, she knew that it wasn't a patronizing nod, but one a warrior gave to a fellow warrior out of respect and acknowledgement of a job well done, "You did well, quarian. You've denied the separatists their only way across and sent them to their deaths. All within a few seconds. Very impressive."

She waved them off, nodding to both, "That's all well and good, but we still need a plan to permanently push them back. I doubt they're going to pack up and retreat simply because I retracted a bridge. They'll have a backup plan."

"You heard her," Kaidan reinforced, slamming a fresh thermal clip into his empty assault rifle, "Cerberus isn't done with us yet. Reload your weapons, nurse any wounds you have and let's get the ball rolling. I'll contact Marcus, see what's taking him so long. As for the engineers, I want the geth to help get those turrets operational. I'm sick of hearing nothing but silence from them. Things are useless until they're chewing up enemy troops. As for the bridge," she turned to Tali, shrugging, "Just...keep it retracted, I guess. That, or you can make sure those AA guns are up to scratch. Without that bridge, Cerberus will have to switch to airlift to get their men over here...we need to make that as hard for them as possible."

She snapped a salute, before turning back to her arm and reactivating her omni-tool, her favoured weapon of choice other than her shotgun, "Understood. I'll keep them-" she frowned, watching has her tool began to flash, alerting her to an intrusion. Accessing the tab the alert was coming from, she saw that her command script she had initiated for the bridge was being steadily overwritten...and she recognized the hacker's code instantly. It was unmistakeable.

Her fingers got to work, bringing up her counter-intrusion program to combat the hack. Luckily, the work was coming from one source only, and regardless of any cybernetic improvements, the engineer was no mess for a quarian geth expert. Quickly, the progress bar on the hack was brought to a halt, Tali quickly fighting back against it, fingers typing wildly and ferociously as she fought to keep her hold. She shouted, quick to alert the defenders, "Somebody's countering my hack on the bridge! I'm holding them back, but be ready! They could try and hack the turrets!"

Within seconds, her superior hacking won out. She pushed the hacker back, successfully expelling him from the system. With a sigh of relief, she quickly brought up a seperate pair of settings and began to rapidly establish a firewall to keep any further attacks from getting in. It would take a while, but with her abilities, it would ensure that their control on the bridge remained absolute and permanent.

Just as she began typing the first line of code however, the tab flashed an alert again: another hacking attempt. Sighing, she swiped back over, rolling her eyes. Arrogant, Cerberus bosh'tet.

She quickly addressed the new hacker, surprised to find it was the same combat engineer from before. Cracking her neck, she got to work again, fingers a blur as they worked. She was completely assured that she could beat back the hack, but it seemed she had underestimated Cerberus this time.

A second hacker joined the cyberattack, followed by a third, and fourth. Soon, six independent, Cerberus combat engineers were performing seperate attacks on the same node, and Tali widened her eyes as she was overwhelmed. Her counterhacking managed to hold them back, but only barely: she was slowly losing control. Eventually, two more joined the hack, and she was up against nine hackers all at once.

Knowing she would lose, she was about to call Moses and EDI for assistance when the hackers finally smashed what was left of her control, and seized fully operational command over the bridge. What had been their biggest victory had been turned over in an instant. Her eyes widened, turning to Kaidan and shouting just as the gears sounded once more, the blocks moving out as the bridge began to return to its original position, "Kaidan, I've lost control! They have the bridge!"

Kaidan nodded, using hand signals to have everyone return from their relaxed positions to full battle mode. Waiting on the other side, the third enemy squad readied their weapons for a charge, now reinforced by a fourth and fifth squad behind them. A dragoon commander prepped their forward movement, raising a fist into the air as he rallied his men behind him. Lighting up with biotics, he looked ready to storm them. Tali wracked her shotgun, ready to blow apart whatever attempted to make the crossing.

Damn it, damn it, damn it! So stupid! I should have had Moses and EDI reinforce the hack from the beginning! Now we're back to square one!

The bridge slid back into position on the other side, the gears going silent once more as it returned to its former cradle. Now able to advance across the gap again, the dragoon charged, his harrier assault rifle opening fire as he initiated Cerberus' renewed attack. Dozens of assault troopers followed suit, firing their mattocks and SMGs, while centurions, combat engineers, guardians, nemesi and phantoms all fell in behind him, and this time, with three whole squads, they looked set to overrun them.

Looking indomitable and unstoppable, it came as a surprise to Tali when she saw the dragoon slide into a crouch, stopping his own charge in its tracks and raising his hands, biotics summoned as he holstered his rifle and quickly formed a biotic barrier around himself. He seemed to be taken aback by something on the UGC's side of the bridge, but before Tali could see what it was, it fired, a blaring blast of red energy barrelling through the air and tearing through Cerberus' forward line, vaporizing ten assault troopers and a couple of phantoms instantly. The shot continued until it had incinerated several more troopers, a centurion and two combat engineers, before finally dematerializing.

Tali turned and watched as the geth tank rolled back out into the area, its turret's barrel still searing red hot from its opening salvo. James howled cheerfully at the sight, pumping his fist into the air as he continued to scream out like a maniac, "That's right, you gilipollas! Time to die, assholes!"

The enemy charge, despite having suffered heavy casualties from the shelling, continued forward, simply focusing their fire on the new threat, pouring bullets uselessly into the tank's more powerful kinetic shielding. They merely flashed in response, absorbing the assault as the turret lowered, finding a new target. The dragoon stood up and joined the attack as well, sending a flare spiralling through the air at high speed. It slammed into the front of the tank, causing it to roll back slightly, but barely denting its shields. The blast enough was enough to knock EDI and Kaidan onto their chest due to the concussive shockwave, but overall, only a single geth drone was lost due to the biotic explosion.

Snarling, Tali shot up and fired her shotgun, watching it stumble the dragoon as it connected with his shields. They did not burst due to the range she had fired it at, but she certainly got his attention. Turning, he grabbed his rifle and returned fire. She merely ducked however, wracking her shotgun again before standing back up, aiming aim and tapping the trigger. He stumbled back again, shields flashing more intensely this time.

Almost have him...

Keeling took notice and fired off a shot, but the dragoon was quick: lowering the arm holding the rifle, he raised his left one, bent it infront of his chest, and protected a circle of biotic energy around it, creating a sort of 'biotic hoplon' infront of him, blocking the attack. Javik fired his particle rifle into it, but it made no dent, and the dragoon simply shrugged it off. Satisfied, he took them all by surprise when he dropped that arm and suddenly lunged forward, biotically charging forward. His body becoming a missile, he closed the distance in a second as his body appeared infront of her, slamming into her roughly. She felt the air tossed from her lungs from the violent impact, feeling herself tossed back several meters.

Turning to Keeling, the dragoon raised his rifle and opened fire, using his biotics to bash aside Javik, causing the prothean to drop his own rifle. Keeling steadily closed the distance while Tali got back to her feet, shaking her head and grabbing her shotgun off the ground. Teeth gnashed together, she regarded the dragoon with intense anger.

Cerberus. Bosh'tet!

Gripping her shotgun more tightly, she raised it and took aim, firing one firm blast directly into his abdomen. He noticed her too late, body glowing in preparation to form a biotic defense, only for the blast to get under his arm decimate what was left of his shields, the kinetic barriers splitting with a loud, crackling pop. Grunting, he fell to one knee, listening intently as Tali wracked the slot again, readying another salvo. She strafed right as he sent out a biotic warp, watching it shoot uselessly past her.

Keeling steadily finished closing the distance, and moved to whip him with the butt of her gun. The dragoon reacted quickly, free hand dropping his rifle to grab the descending weapon firmly, his grip strong enough to cause the rifle to creak painfully. Keeling reacted quickly, using her free hand to strike him across the face. He didn't let go even as his head snapped around and away from her. This just gave Keeling the opening she needed to duck down, grab her knife, unsheath it and slam it down towards his neck.

But the dragoon was smart. He leapt up, the knife instead penetrating deep into his side, but not becoming the killer blow Keeling intended. The N7 dropped her rifle and pulled the knife out, spinning around and slashing at his stomach. He leapt back, dodging the blow, holding his side as blood leaked out and stained his armor. Tali was ontop of him, shotgun booming as it sent another plasma projectile forward at him. He swatted it aside with his biotics, ducking down to grab his rifle, only for the weapon to be sliced in half by particle energy as he did so, causing him to drop what was left of its bissected skeleton onto the ground, rendered useless.

Before he could do anything else, green energy enveloped him, encasing him to the spot, unable to move. Tali nodded to Javik, the prothean simply continuing to hold his hand out, channelling all his biotic strength into maintaining the stasis. Unable to defend himself, he was defenseless as both Keeling and Tali nodded to each other, the quarian activating her omni-blade and Keeling wielding her combat blade, and descended upon him. Both of them struck the dragoon in both sides of the gut, their blades penetrating deep. The dragoon could do nothing but silently scream as hot, boiling energy combined with the cold, serated edge of a more conventional blade pierced deep into his belly, wounding him gravely.

The two women retracted their weapons of choice, Tali deactivating her blade while Keeling sheathed her own. Content with their kill, Javik released the stasis on the Cerberus biotic shock trooper, and he collapsed to the floor, one hand bracing his fall as the other desperately tried to cup both wounds, while the other in his side festered: blood leaked out from all pores, and the soldier looked up weakly, shaking his head as he tried to stand, trying to retreat.

Tali never gave him the chance. Cocking her shotgun once more, she rose it, took aim and blew his head clean off, watching as the blood, brains and viscera erupted like a overflowing volcano, the chunks of skull and red meat creating a fine mist as they carved a coppery, disgusting mesh through the air to splatter the ground in sticky, human essence. The bottom half of his jaw was all that was left, hanging to the side uselessly in a mockery of the human's former appearance. After a few moments, the twitching corpse fell to the ground, entirely motionless.

With a sigh, Tali looked up, watching as Kaidan and their troop managed to mop up what was left of the attacking enemy squads. Most of them had made it across, and even more managed to engage the UGC in hand-to-hand, with several geth falling, and more than a few of Tali's engineers. She watched with some relief as Kaidan finished dealing with two assault troopers, ripping his omni-blade out of the shin of one, before relentlessly impaling another in the gut multiple times. Shooting up, he then spun and decapitated the multiply stabbed trooper, before stabbing the other through the top of the head, kicking both of their corpses to the ground. Panting, he spared them a brief glance before stepping down and retrieving his rifle, which was now soaked in gore. Wiping off what blood he could, he took the runny weapon and fired into the backs of two retreating centurions, watching as what was left of the final squad tried to retreat.

They were rapidly dealt with, but it was far from over. Tali watched, arms slumping, as what looked to be two enemy platoons charged forward, a phalanx of twelve Ramparts and a pair of Atlas mechs approached, Cerberus likely making a last ditch attempt to breach the UGC defenses...

This time, Tali knew they would win. The army of white and gold, seemingly limitless in numbers and a pale horde that was simply unstoppable, amassed on the bridge she now had no control over, moving forth to conquer their enemies and smash their defenses.

Then, a sight Tali couldn't believe she was seeing.

What seemed to be one by one, left to right, the defense turrets that had been silent for so long suddenly began to rev up, internal mechanisms roaring to life as their internal IFF identifiers calculated their targets and spun up their motors. All four of them, their barrels pointing upwards and locking onto the approaching Cerberus army, their barrels beginning to whir to life ever so quickly, as if preparing to dish out a powerful payload.

And it was.

All of them, seemingly at once, opened up. Their intense muzzle flashes were almost blinding, the screeching deafening as their barrels retorted numerous times per second, spewing out round after round after round. They were active, had found targets, and were now tearing them apart.

The first line of the enemy platoon were too late to stop and retreat. The raking crossfire of the activated defense turrets cut them to pieces, shredding shields, armor and flesh alike, heads popping like melons and limbs being sawed off in a frenzy. A dozen enemy soldiers fell almost instantly, while the next dozen faired little better, the sheer firepower being delivered upon them being too much for their kinetic barriers to withstand. Within moments the bridge had been converted into a bloodbath, the color of crimson creeping across the floor like a plague.

Seeing the first platoon decimated, the second platoon came to a complete halt, and began a retreat, hoping to use their two Atlases as cover. The turrets showed no mercy, immediately locking onto their new victims and letting havoc rain supreme. More corpses were added to the ever growing chaos, entire lines of soldiers falling as their backs were blasted apart, some falling face first into the ground while others were spun around due to the sheer force of the impact. One phantom's entire upper torso was sliced away the focused fire of two turrets.

The Atlas did nothing to save them, and nor did the ramparts. The cockpit of one was shattered as three turrets focused on it, the pilot standing no chance as his body was rendered an unrecognizable, horrible parody of a human body. Without a pilot, the Atlas collapsed uselessly forward, crushing the corpses that had gathered beneath it with a series of audible cracks and snaps. The second Atlas backed up, trying to bring its own incredible firepower to destroy one of the turrets, but it merely pinged off their own built-in shielding. Eventually, all four turrets gained up on the last Atlas, and the pilot soon met a similar fate, with the mech this time falling backwards, crushing four Ramparts underneath it.

The last eight Ramparts fell like dominoes, their tech armor doing them no favors. Incredible firepower reduced them to the equivalent of mini junkyards in seconds, and they were soon gone from the battle.

In the span of thirty seconds, the seemingly colossal Cerberus assault had been reduced to ruin. Some corpses twitched, others, still horrifyingly alive, tried to crawl away, only to be annihilated by a hail of fire as the turrets fired upon anything that was Cerberus and had a heartbeat. In the end, the stench of newly made bodies swept across the bridge. In layman's terms, it was simple carnage.

Satisfied with the turrets now being operational, Tali collapsed against the safety barrier, falling onto her butt with a thud, sighing in relief, shotgun clattering uselessly to her side. She didn't need to worry anymore...even if the bridge wasn't retracted, the activated turrets and their ridiculous firepower meant that no Cerberus force was going to get across now without enormous casualties. And from what she saw, no doubt Cerberus was thinking the exact same thing.

Their assault was over...for now.

"Well, here comes more reinforcements," Keeling noted. Tali looked up to see that, indeed, reinforcements were in the process of being deployed. Escorted by another gunship, three kodiak shuttles descended from above, their descent slow and sluggish, representing Cerberus' attitude towards the siege...they had all the time in the world, and they were in no hurry to deploy their main muscle.

I hope they see our turrets ripping their men apart...take that, Petrovsky. If Tali could spit on the ground, she would. As it was, she was too tired to do it even if she could, her body wracking in huge breaths. The sight of the turrets shifting back and forth, scanning for targets, was more than a relief: it was the most pleasant sight she'd seen since the Tuhi attack began. One of the turrets fired again, Tali not needing to turn around to realize it had fired at and killed a retreating nemesis: the feminine shriek gave it away.

She watched as the reinforcements lowered, getting ever so closer to the courtyard.

Then, out of nowhere, the rear most shuttle simply...exploded.

Like a hawk descending for the kill, a geth dropship appeared, its cloak evaporating to reveal its form. The debris of the shuttle it destroyed rained down into the courtyard below, showering the entrenched enemy forces below in shards of metal and hot wreckage. Taken aback by the brazen act, the last two shuttles scattered, the gunship, spinning around to address the new threat.

The dropship struck first, bombarding it with plasma shells from its superior position above the Mantis. The gunship wasted time attempting to get on the same altitude, desperately firing off its rocket pods in an attempt to bring down its enemy. The dropship gracefully avoided the non-guided missiles, continuing to fire directly into the gunship. Eventually, its shields shattered, and Tali could only smile dopily as the gunship soon erupted into flames, careening into a nearby building and exploding.

The last two shuttles desperately tried to make landing, but the geth dropship was hot on their tails. It bombarded the second shuttle, and she subsequently watched one of its shell catch the kodiak on its tail, shearing its engines off and causing it to spin out of control. It crashed into the courtyard, out of view, likely killing several Cerberus soldiers. A flash came from that direction, flames and a pillar of smoke filing up into the sky signalling the shuttle's final destruction.

The third shuttle managed to land safely on the rooftop of the BSA store, hatch hurriedly opening to quickly dispatch its troops. A dozen assault troopers, a couple of phantoms and a pair of centurions rushed out, desperate to escape the hellfire that seemed to be befalling them.

Their attempts were for naught. A final shell slammed into the top of the shuttle, causing it to explode in a magnificient display of light and fire. Both phantoms and eight of the assault troopers were caught in the blast, thrown away violently. The centurion and what troopers survived were thrown onto their chests, while their comrades' remains were tossed uselessly through the air. Flames licked out from the shuttle's wreckage, as well from the shards that had been distributed by the blast, like ash from a volcano eruption.

It was like a scene from a movie. She could only watch in sheer bliss as the dropship lazily hovered over the area, specifically near the rooftops wjere the third shuttle had met its untimely end, before descending low enough to deploy its payload. Cerberus fire flashed along its barriers, but barely made a dent. Only needing a second to complete its task, the dropship dropped a solid mass onto the rooftop, directly next to the shuttle's wreckage, before strafing slightly to its left, and dropping another. Lifting away, it bombards them for a moment to cover its retreat, before completely ascending out of range of the enemy fire.

The surviving centurion and his four trooper survivors approached the nearest mass, weapons and ready to fire. Suddenly, four legs expanded from the mass, pushing it upwards. A long neck extended, and the optics at the end lit up. Realizing their mistake too late, the geth armature opened fire with its heavy machine gun, and the centurion was the first to die. It then fired its siege pulse, the resulting blast reducing the four, gathered troopers into red putty.

The second armature quickly emerged as well, and together the two armatures moved to the side of the rooftops, raining fire down onto the enemy troops from above, combining machine gun fire and siege pulse together to decimate both mechs and soldier alike.

The geth dropship soon found itself running into new problems: what few gunships in the area quickly responded to the aerial threat to their supremacy, causing the dropship to dodge and weave between them more often than it did retaliate. With around three ganging up on it, the dropship seemed to stand little chance...at least until two more geth dropships emerged from cloak behind them, their joint shelling decimating one gunship instantly, wreckage sent spiralling into the chasm below. The last two gunships performed evasive maneveurs, and were swiftly chased off by the three dropships joined together, temporarily ridding them of the enemy gunships. Whatever kodiaks attempted to approach no longer could: their only passage was now filled by three dropships, and the only other way around would bring them within range of their AA: in the end, the new wave of kodiaks turned around and left, unable to approach or risk being shot down.

And, it seemed, Cerberus was insistent on one final push across the bridge. A line of eight guardians pushed forward, their phalanx just barely keeping the turrets at bay while another Atlas and a squad of fresh Rampart mechs attempted to move forward, testing the integrity of the UGC defenses. Tali did one quick check to make sure she couldn't retract the bridge, only to, unsurprisingly, find it still under firm Cerberus control. However, regarding the situation, she needn't have bothered.

The geth tank's hot plasma, combined with the turrets and the aid of a fourth and final arriving geth dropship, turned the final charge into a final slaughter. The geth tank decimated the Atlas, while the guardians were blasted away by the dropship's rear flanking fire, leaving the Ramparts open to be shredded by the turrets. By the end, it was made clear to Cerberus that any further attempts to breach the UGC defenses would be fruitless, suicidal and most of all, pointless.

Tali, her head hanging limply against the safety barrier, simply smiled as she closed her eyes, the sound of bombardment and explosions behind her becoming numbed sounds in her foreground. She felt Keeling pat her shoulder, before walking away, likely assuring her that it was, at least for now, over. Even as she heard Marcus' voice in her ear, Tali did nothing to respond, feeling that the sound of his voice was all she needed.

"Reinforcements are inbound," Marcus declared, "We're ending this before it begins. Await further instructions."

{Loading...}

August 6, 2186

0741 hours.

Courtyard, Aria's Bunker, Tuhi District, Omega.

Second War for Omega, Battle of the Tuhi District.

Major Randall Ezno, Agent Kai Leng.

If Randall ever got his hands on the genius who thought it was a good idea to send troops wave by wave across the bridge just so they could be slaughtered, there would be a long set of words exchanged. The lack of efficiency involved in wasted manpower and resources was extraordinary. It was a wonder the UGC had to hold back at all. They could have charged with just a squad and gotten the same result.

Idiotic. Foolish. Irresponsible. Inattentive. Arrogant.

Randall, given command of Colonel Amish's 6th regiment, was given the honor of leading the initial assault. On paper, the colonel's plan of attack was impeccable: taking into account all the intel Leng had gathered, Amish had the 6th regiment sweep through the courtyard on foot, entrenching themselves and setting up defensive positions so as to push back any UGC attempt to uproot them. Ten M45 Goblins were deployed further back, and with fighters and bombers launched from the nearby Hudson quadrant (courtesy of Colonel Mitchell Wchest), began bombardment of the bunker, keeping them suppressed whilst the rest of the 6th moved into position.

APCs, tanks and IFVs were out of the question, so that left Atlases as the most powerful form of ground support. The 6th had about fifteen or so to their name, with another fifteen being brought up by the 8th. What Rampart mechs had been relegated to fullfilling law enforcement duties in the Tuhi district (which was now evacuated) were now committed to the assault in full, ready to render assistance where necessary. Randall wanted to use them to reinforce the more stronger attacks...but again, stupidity from within led to dozens of them being sacrificed needlessly.

With the 6th in position, the 8th could deploy via shuttle. Their fighters, bombers and gunships guaranteed air supremacy even with the bunker's AA, giving them a clear line of sight for kodiak squadrons to swoop in and deploy 8th regiment reinforcements, while even more moved in from the ground and provided more men and firepower to the flanks, further securing them. With everything set, Amish could besiege the bunker with relative ease, eventually tightening the noose and forcing the UGC to either come out guns blazing, where they'd be funnelled across the bridge and slaughtered, or surrender. Either way, they would win the battle, and Amish would be applauded with having defeated the UGC invasion before it even began.

Unfortunately, as was an increasingly common trait with Cerberus, these things never went to plan. Why? Because some genius always managed to mess it up. Whether it was Leng with his jealously and arrogance, or a Cerberus commander with something to prove. Either way, it was neither Randall's or Amish's decision to turn what should have been a chokepoint for Aria's forces to be funnelled through into one for his forces to be funnelled through.

Randall, weapon holstered on his back and Leng hot on his heels, his own sword sheathed and flanked by a pair of phantoms, stormed towards the frontline of the courtyard, where the centurion in command of the 32nd Battalion (and, subsequently, responsible for their recent blunders) was supposed to be located. He halted his movement for a moment, allowing a column of six assault troopers to run past, one of them carrying a missile launcher, all of them heading towards the frontline in an attempt to deal with the latest threat. Once they had run past, the comm chatter on their radios audible for all to hear, Randall proceeded to return to his dictated path, the assassin behind him ever so silent as he likely felt the waves of annoyance rolling off the manhunter.

All over the courtyard, it was chaos. While their entrenched positions were holding firm, the recent setbacks and UGC counterattack had shaken up the bee hive. The lost of five of their Atlases and dozens of Rampart mechs had forced them to reassign numerous assets, including sending troops to plug holes that weren't originally present but now were because of the soldiers diverted for the 32nd's problematic maneuvers. Luckily, a large amount of the 8th regiment were now present, allowing for 6th regiment positions to be filled accordingly and where necessary. So, luckily for them, they were struck with a bit of a fluke.

The door to BSA shot open as several squads of Cerberus troops rushed through, likely attempting to reinforce the right flank: given recent events, it was a good idea. The door locked behind them, one of their engineers crouching infront of it and using his omni-tool to ensure the security on the door was unhackable, or at the very least, nigh impenetrable. He proceeded to take the sentry turret on his back and deploy it for good measure, taking all the necessary precautions to make absolutely sure that any UGC attack from that direction (however unlikely) wouldn't get through without heavy loss of life.

As he emerged into the main courtyard, he found out pretty quickly that the battle had become more chaotic than he initially thought. Several corpses lay strewn about that were missing arms, legs, heads and even entire torsos. Some were riddled with bullet holes, burn marks or were simply blown apart by explosives. Regardless, the stench of death hung heavily over the newly formed battlefield, with friendly forces ignoring the remains of their fallen brothers-in-arms, even outright running through their bloody remains as they tried to find cover or established new defensive positions. Machine gun nests were shifted, cloaks were activated, snipers shifted vantage points...it was an efficient recalculation of the tactical terrain, but it was just as chaotic. There was even the remains of a crashed kodiak inside what used to be Marsh Rentals, the shuttle having crashed through the walls and exploded inside the vacant storefront, fire and thick smoke pluming up into the air violently, its wreckage having caused the entire building to light on fire. From the carnage left behind (including at least a dozen or so dead assault troopers and guardians, not to mention a destroyed mortar position), the shuttle didn't come quietly.

Whipping out his rifle, he reached out and grabbed the arm of a passing assault trooper, turning him to face him, "What the hell is going out here!?"

The trooper saluted briefly, before shaking his head, "We don't know, sir! They came out of fucking nowhere! Took out some of our shuttles, and dropped geth on the rooftops. Before we knew what was happening, our gunships were chased off and our men are getting slaughtered from multiple angles! We're trying to deal with it now!"

Randall gritted his teeth, cursing the centurion in his mind. Bloody fool. He's got a lot to answer for here. Can we not get anything right?

He nodded to the trooper and let him go. The trooper gave one final salute before rushing off, joining a group of other troopers lying prone behind a group of containers, trying to stay out of the line of sight of the geth attackers.

He turned to Leng, and nodded. The assassin silently removed his blade from his back in acknowledgement, motioning for his phantoms to join the battle. They saluted him and rushed off into battle, whipping out their own swords as they entered cloak, disappearing as they joined the ever infested battlefield.

Randall rushed out, keeping his back arched and head down so as to make himself a difficult target. Leng simply cloaked, disappearing completely. Randall paid him little mind: at this point, he didn't care what the assassin did as long as it didn't jeopardize the entire siege. Meanwhile, the manhunter just focused on not getting shot, grunting slightly as plasma rounds slammed into his back, his kinetic barriers just barely holding them back. He eventually got to the nearest crate and rolled into cover, dropping prone next to a trio of troopers. The one in the middle had a modified Revenant attached to a tripod, lowered on a crate and pouring fire into the nearest geth. The two troopers on each side of him were barely doing anything, one of them simply shouting commands, instructions and orders through his comms.

"Copy that, Mike-28," the assault trooper stated, "Yeah...yeah, we copy. Yes we know we've got geth on our flank...Mike-28, we are doing everything we...yes...yes. Yes, we fucking get it. But in case you haven't noticed, we're up to your ass in shit right now...you want backup? Well get Yankee-07 on it...what the fuck is that supposed to mean? We're pinned, you stupid fuck! I told you, Yankee-07 has a D-09 unit that they haven't deployed yet...yeah, well perhaps Lieutenant Colonel Adams shouldn't have sent so many across that bridge...yes...understood, Mike-28. Yes, loud and clear - now, kindly, go fuck yourself. We're busy..."

While the trooper continued to argue with the callsign on the other end, Randall took a moment to peek out from behind the crate, looking up at the rooftop to see what they were dealing with. Peaking out from the edge of the rooftop was the optics of a geth armature, the machine gun on the side of it tearing into the crates he was hiding behind. A second armature was next to it on the left, hammering a different enemy position, while ocassionally firing a siege pulse to devastate a large group of troops stupid enough to move in the open. The armature quickly spotted Randall and fired, the manhunter quickly moving back behind cover, watching as hot plasma slammed into the spot his head had been, the deck hissing as it was left scorched.

"...tell Beaver-90 to get over here and to bring some heavy fucking guns," the trooper from before continued to shout, "...no? Look, tell Lima-75 that I don't care if he's getting siege pulses shoved up his anus, I want some fucking heavies down here now. We're getting raped by this damn armatures...yes, and they've got plasma guns too! And where are those damn D-09s? Last I checked, we still have ten of 'em! GET THEM OVER HERE NOW! Yes, I'm aware we have dropships bombarding us six-ways-to-Sunday! Maybe if Lieutenant Colonel Adams stopped sending troops to die on a fucking bridge we'd have some D-09s left to take care of those dropships! I don't want excuses, I want results! Make it happen or they'll make you dead...fine! But when the right flank collapses because you wanted to huddle together for warmth and comfort, I'll tell Major Ezno that you're to blame, you fucking piece of shit!" Finally switching off his comm, he turned to Randall, apparently aware he had been there the entire time, and gave an ever so brief salute, "Sergeant Farques, sir."

"Well...Sergeant Farques," he began, licking his lips, "I see we're having communication issues."

Farques shook his head, wincing as a siege pulse slammed into the ground nearby, causing an ever so brief tremor, "If I'm honest sir, it's more than an issue. Lima-75 and Mike-28 are refusing to budge from the left flank...I keep telling them the fight is coming to the right, but they won't listen. We've got ten D-09s just sitting in the open, doing nothing. If those dropships haven't destroyed them yet, they soon will."

Randall frowned, "Dropships? I thought we had the UGC's air forces suppressed?"

The trooper chuckled bitterly, "Yeah, you can ask Lieutenant Colonel Adams about that. All I know is that we had two platoons and a pair of D-09s crossing the bridge when the UGC suddenly activated the turrets and butchered them. Then, a geth dropship appeared and blasted the latest of the 8th's reinforcements out of the sky, dropped those two armatures we're dealing with now, and then a few more dropships appeared and practically chased off everything but our fighters and bombers. One of those dropships is currently bombing us from above, and Amish suddenly dispersed the entire 8th regiment to the right flank...something about this bombardment being a precursor to an imminent counterattack. And without the 8th...well, the 6th's hanging out here with our pants down, sir. We have the numbers, but right now, it doesn't mean shit."

Randall took a moment to contemplate this new information, finding himself completely unsurprised by the stupidity of the operation. Amish is just doing what he can to salvage the battle before its lost...the UGC might have cut us off guard, but we still have the numerical superiority to reinforce our position and fight back. I can't say redistributing the 8th from a support to a reinforcement role is going to benefit the 6th, but if he has faith we can hold the line...then damn it, we'll hold the line. I swore to Petrovsky we could win this. I will not back down now...the 6th is my command: I'm damn well going to show it.

First, I'm going to have a word with this Adams. Might even relieve him of command: idiot can only further hamper this operation if he keeps that title.

"I'm going to contact Adams and get you those heavies," Randall declared, gripping the trooper's shoulderpad strongly, "There's no other way to fix this damn charade he's created."

"That would be much appreciated, sir," the trooper winced again, this time watching as the trooper maining the gun emplacement fell back, his head stripped to bloody ribbons as he was made the sole victim of a plasma volley, the steaming remains sibilating on the deck. The trooper sighed, motioning for the second trooper, who was mainly doing nothing, to man the gun. To his annoyance, he immediately met the same fate, his cries of pain cut off immediately as he collapsed to the side of the crate, one hand stuck holding the gun. The surviving trooper slammed his fist into the side of the crate, clearly pissed off, "And give Adams my sincerest fuck you, sir. If it was up to me, I'd strip him of that centurion armor myself. Fucking idiotic prick."

Randall barely spared the trooper a glance before he had already rolled out from behind his cover, managing to get behind another pair of crates bordering the ones he had previously been behind. Luckily, the geth armature hadn't noticed him, barely craning its neck as it continued to pepper the crate he had been behind with plasma fire and siege pulses. He tapped the comm on his new helmet, quickly pulling back the latch on his rifle to double check that a thermal clip was inside. Convinced there he was, he maintained his prone position, keeping out of the enemy's sight lines, "Agent Leng, this is Ezno. Respond."

Luckily, the assassin replied immediately, "Yes, Major?"

"Sitrep," he replied curtly, transferring from prone to crouched position, head peeking over to make sure the enemy still hadn't spotted him.

"I'm not by myself, if that's what you're worried about," Leng stated dryly, clearly not amused by what the Cerberus assassin likely considered babysitting, "I'm with a few of my phantoms, near the bridge. Keeping an eye on our UGC friends. And guess who's with them? Shepard's little suit rat, the prothean freak, the N7 bitch, that whiny piece of shit, the AI and that Hispanic fuckwit...oh, and a whole lot of geth."

Randall frowned, not liking his tone, "You have your orders. Remember that. Do. Not. Engage."

"Oh, do calm yourself," was the blurted reply on the other end, having predicted what the manhunter would say in earnest, "Like I said, keeping an eye on them. Observing. Most of them appear to be nothing a whole lot of nothing, but considering that their turrets are blowing apart anything that so much as draws breath on that bridge, I think they may have earned it. No way we're getting across unless those turrets leave the equation."

He quickly dashed out from cover, away from the crates, moving up a flight of stairs and towards the front of the courtyard. Although he wasn't spotted by either of the armatures, the downward screech of mass effect engines and the sudden gust of wind blowing into his back caused a switch to flick in Randall's head. Having been running towards a pair of sandbags (now facing the armatures) where a squad of assault troopers were entrenched, he instead quickly rolled to the right, right into the open. While the shelling that impacted the deck did have enough force to throw him further across, slamming into a safety barrier, his last minute evasion had saved him from certain death.

The dropship swooped by like a bird of prey, its plasma shells slamming into the ground as it completed its carpet bombing. Crates were blown apart, sandbags chewed up, and Randall watched as the troopers he had been approaching were hit by a direct impact, one soldier's body simply dispersing in all directions, while the rest were thrown away like ragdolls, blood sawing through the air like dust from wood freshly sawed. Blood splattered Randall's visor and chestplate: enough to be annoying, but not soaked at least.

Wiping the blood off his helmet, he stood up, ignoring the bruising along his back and right side: a side effect of hitting a safety barrier at full force. Most of his body now ached, but he pushed past it to stand up, gripping his rifle tightly as he gritted his teeth and pushed back into a sprint. He bent over, ignoring his body's protests at the uncomfortable positioning and continuing to piston himself forward. He had to reach the frontline. He needed to assess the situation and how best to save the battle.

At the very least we kill Shepard. Sure, we'll martyr him...maybe. And if we do, we do: but without him, the UGC's defeat will be inevitable. His little alliance will fall apart...he's the only one keeping humans and batarians, quarians and geth, krogan and salarians, the Terminus and the Council united...when he dies, they'll turn on each other. Even if we lose the whole battle, it will be a victory to kill him...we might just win this war. After all, if this had been under Aria's leadership...we'd have kicked her off the station by now.

Of course, he'd have no choice but to let Leng have the honor. Otherwise, the assassin would never shut up about it. Let him have his jealously. Like a dog, you must train it to bite the hand that strikes it, not the hand that feeds it. If you can focus Leng on Shepard...then he'll do the rest. And if he dies in the process, I'll be happier for it: he's an insufferable git that Cerberus can do without.

The geth dropship was gone by now, but its aerial barrage had done the trick: scorch marks, in a neat line across the deck, left nothing but ruin in its wake: body parts, blood stains, metal shards from destroyed containers, piles of sand from popped sandbags, including sandbags that were unpopped and just tossed away by the explosions. Regardless, the dropship and its armature allies were doing a fine job of keeping the 6th suppressed...and that worried Randall.

Shepard knows they can only keep us suppressed...and that's what he counts on. He will be planning a counterattack soon. Amish saw that...that's why he diverted the 8th to the right flank. It's the only feasible zone he can attack from. While the main entrance was the only way in and out of the bunker on foot, the left side of the bunker had perfect access to the right side of the district, whilst the left had nothing but open space...if he approached from that vector, he'd be spotted and easily countered. But if he approached from the east...the open streets, but plentiful buildings, would be perfect for krogan shock troops. Close quarters combat...krogan will always come out on top. At least with the 8th covering the flank, we'll be secure here. We just need to lessen the fire and remove those turrets on the bridge.

After a minute, Randall finally arrived at the bridge, where he found Leng and a squad of five phantoms crouched behind the barrier, heads just peeking over the edge enough for them to see the other side, but not be shot by the sentry guns. Leng had his sword out and leaning against the railing, his eyes focused entirely on the other side...watching them like a bird did when regarding creatures from afar.

He fell in behind him, crouched and rifle holstered on his back. Leng turned to him, giving him a simple nod, before returning back to his work, "Good thing you've arrived. Apparently Lieutenant Colonel Adams wants to try another push. He's hoping to coordinate artillery strikes to focus on suppressing those turrets...hopefully allow our troops to advance."

Randall gritted his teeth, once again angered by the commander's actions. Stupid baffoon. "That's what our artillery has been trying to do this entire time. What does he think they're doing, shooting the bunker until they surrender? The artillery is too close to get enough of an angle to hit them. We can't get them further away because there isn't enough room further back."

The assassin just shrugged, "You're the commander. I'm the assassin. I just told him to do what he thinks is best...at least until he talked to you, of course. I'm sure you'll straighten him out, won't you?"

He shook his head, turning to try and find the Adams from where he was. So far, no luck, "I'll be stripping him of his damn rank, is what I'll be doing, Leng. Idiot has sacrificed far too many men already: I won't allow him to sacrifice anymore," doing one final scan of the area with his eyes, he still failed to find him, patting the assassin on the shoulder to get his attention, "Where is Adams?"

The assassin jabbed a thumb over to the other side of the bridge, "Behind one of the barriers. He got hit by the turrets trying to cross. His men pulled him back, but not before one of the turrets decided to have a nice, juicy arm for lunch. They're patching him up now, but he's been wailing like a little bitch for quite a bit now. I'd enjoy it if you could shut him up. He's a bit distracting."

Now that Randall focused on it, he could hear agonized roaning from the other side. Peeking over, he saw a centurion sitting against the safety railing on the opposite side from where he was, helmet removed and face looking ludicrously pale. His dark skin made it hard to tell, but the man looked to be nearly passed out, the lack of a right arm obviously the factor pertaining to that. Blood drenched that side of his armor, although orange medi-gel was dabbed all over the wound, along with several layers of bandages. An assault trooper (a medic by the red cross on his back and shoulders) was tending to him, while a guardian stood on his flank, using his shield to protect his CO from enemy fire. A nemesis was on the other side of him, sniper rifle sitting ontop of the railing and shooting at anything that moved, remaining out of the turret's range and sight.

Knowing he'd have to risk rushing across the bridge, Randall turned and motioned a nearby guardian over to him. The soldier wasted no time in rushing up to him, crouching down next to him as he spoke, "Yes sir, what do you need me for sir?"

He nodded to the man's shield arm, making his intent clear as he turned away and looked back across at the crippled Adams, "Your shield, soldier. Give it to me."

"Sir?"

"I need it to reach Adams," he held his right arm out, "No more questions. Give it to me now."

The guardian did as instructed, reaching down and unlatching it from the clasps on his arm. Taking the insidiously heavy object and strapping over Randall's arm, the manhunter felt an immense weight dropped on his arm, one he was expecting but not quite wanting. The shield slammed into the ground as his body dealt with the weight of it, and after a moment, he managed to lift it. Sighing, he turned back, taking the shield with him, confident he could wield it.

"You good, sir?" the guardian asked, looking like the average assault trooper now without his shield, wielding nothing but a Talon pistol which was currently holstered at his side.

"I'm fine, soldier," he snapped, waving him off dismissively, "Return to your post."

Hearing footsteps beside him, he assumed the trooper had done as ordered. Wasting no further time, he slammed the shield back into the floor, facing the bridge, making sure his entire body was hidden behind it: he even ducked his head under the slot, making sure no snipers could take advantage of it or a stray bullet didn't chip through it. Taking a deep breath, and his eyes set on the prize, Randall braced his legs, and dashed.

He felt himself thrown back a few inches from the sheer force of the four turrets opening fire on him simultaneously, but to his relief, not a single round hit him. Taken by surprise, he rebalanced himself and kept moving, hugging the shield tightly to himself and ignoring the pain of the shield being constantly pummelled against him by the high-powered rounds darting into it: this, mixed with the bruising he already received from before, was not leaving in a position of comfort, but he couldn't complain as long as he was alive...and with both arms.

It didn't take long before he was on the opposite side, unstrapping the shield from his arm once he was sure he was completely safe and dumping it on the ground. It landed with a echoing bang, Randall feeling as if a boulder the size of a car had been lifted from his arm: said arm could have been light as a feather from how light it felt now. Shaking it slightly, he crouched beside Adams, who lazily craned his head to face him, eyes droopy from the amount of morphine and medi-gel in his system.

"Ma...jor...Ran...Ez...no...sir..." Adams slurred. Instead of saluting, he just sat there, looking blankly at him. It was at that moment he looked down to his missing arm, gulping before raising his other hand to salute instead: the movement was sloppy however, his hand bashing uselessly against his forehead before flopping back into his lap, "I...woul...woul...would...have...pre-prep-"

He curtly interrupted the centurion, having no time to let the man finish even one sentence, "Save the formalities, commander. I'm relieving you of your post and command. As of now, your battalion answers straight to me. And you will not attempt to charge that bridge again."

The man gulped again, mouth looking dry and weathered, "I...unders...sta...sta..."

"He has a fever, sir," the medic replied, tapping at his omni-tool, "There's something in the air...I stitched him up as soon as I could, but his body, the air...its made him sick, faster than I thought it would. The wound was already beginning to show signs of infection when I treated it, but whatever's in those rounds the turrets are using, combined with the unhygienic air and the open wound...the best I can do is hope his cybernetics fight it off and his regeneration fixes at least some of it. If he survives, he'll need a prosthetic arm...cloning a new one is a bit expensive, so mechanical would be the best thing to do. As for the slurring...he's barely coherent at the moment sir. Had to give him an extra dose of morphine or Leng said he'd kill him...said the screaming was disturbing his work."

What work? Eying up meat before the kill? That's not work...that's a hobby. Randall just scoffed, shaking his head, "Adams is lucky to be injured...I have half a mind to let Leng have him. This idiot jeopardized our mission."

The medic shrugged, "I just heal people, sir. Personal problems are for the brass to take care of. I'm not going to get involved."

Randall nodded, tapping the man on the back, "You do good work, keep it up. However, I don't want you to spend all your time on Adams. If he dies, don't shed any tears for him. There are plenty of more good men who deserve your attention."

"I'll do what I can," the medic replied, "Can't guarantee everyone will get treated though. We've got a lot of medics, but with that dropship running sorties, they're fast running out. I can't treat a thousand soldiers all at once."

The manhunter just nodded in agreement, before turning away and tapping his comms again, contacting the commander of the 8th regiment, Major Hela Ruth, "Major Ruth, this is Ezno. How fairs the 8th? Is the eastern flank bunkered down?"

Ruth's response was exasperated and miffed, "I still have hundreds of my troops moving into position, but if you mean we have all entry points checked...we do. This station's streets make it hard to move my troops around, and we're trying to keep beneath the notice of those geth ships that just turned up. I have my engineers deploying sentry turrets and setting up mines along every alleyway. If the enemy chooses to come through, we'll cut a knife through him before hitting the jugular. Now, if you don't mind, these comms suffer enough traffic as it is, I don't need yours added to it asking for inane things such as 'are we okay'?"

Randall was unamused, "Listen here, Ruth. If you have a bone to pick with me, then put it away. My regiment is getting hammered from all sides while you've just escaped the enemy's notice. I need to know the flank is secured so I can drag us out of this mess that Adams has created for us. Now, Colonel Amish gave you a job to do...get to it. I don't care if you don't like me, and I don't care if you think I'm bothering you...so far, we're all having a bad day. The cure for that is working together to fix it, not arguing and making it worse. Am I clear, Ruth?"

Her attitude remained unchanged, actually having the gall to laugh, "You don't get to talk down to me, Ezno. We're both of the same rank...I'm not some subordinate you can talk down to. You wanted to know if the east flank is secure, now you do. Unless Amish is telling me to go on the attack or delivers new orders, I don't want to hear a peep from you again."

Randall just chuckled at that, "We're not equals, Ruth. And perhaps I should ask Amish to demote you. You see, whereas this is your first combat op, this is not mine. Talk back to me again and I will personally come over there and kill you. Now, ally, keep the east flank bunkered down and we shouldn't have any further problems. If I hear anymore insults or objections over this comm line, I will send Leng over to deal with you: I don't want to hear a peep from you again. Good day." He then cut the comms, ensuring Ruth couldn't talk back again.

The arrogance in these commanders. Will certainly need to get that sorted out.

With that done, he quickly switches comm channels to those of Papa Squadron-12, specifically squadron leader Papa-1, "Papa Actual, this is Romeo-49, allotment process in effect. We're experiencing extreme complications on the ground. Enemy forces are well entrenched and all attempts at an advance have been postponed indefinitely until those turrets are dealt with. SPGs are doing what they can and the 8th has the flank covered, but we're going to need you to turn up the heat, over: increase bombardment at Grid Alpha-Echo-9-6-9-9, aim to suppress and disperse. Say copy, over."

"Copy, grid target confirmed," Papa-1 replied, taking a few moments to process his new orders, "Ah, Romeo-49...we have a confirmation on that grid target, but that brings us within range of their active air defense, over. We have clear path to target, but once we commit, chances of effective payload delivery lessen as the flak thickens, Romeo-49. Please confirm operational authority for allotment, roger?"

Randall nodded, uploading the necessary credentials on his omni-tool, "Romeo-49 callsign confirmation underway. You have confirmation on your orders, Papa Actual: seek to destroy hostile targets, designated at Grid Alpha-Echo-9-6-9-9. We acknowledge danger close parameters and accept. Air support deemed vital, situation is FUBAR. Say confirm."

"Confirmed, Romeo-49. Right to allotment received and granted. Redirecting," Papa-1 replied, "Keeping it clear: danger close. Allied fast movers inbound."

Suddenly, just as Randall was about to sign off, he received a communications request from Channel Zebra-5. He frowned, realizing Zebra-5 was the 8th regiment's assigned recon group. Why they would be contacting him instead of Ruth, their actual commander, was unknown to him, but he moved to accept it all the same. Switching to the new channel, he quickly addressed it, although he wasn't happy at being suddenly interrupted, "This is Romeo-49 to Zebra-5. What is the meaning of this cross channel? This is a 6th regiment channel. Transfer to 8th regiment channels and inform your section commander."

"Not a mistake, Romeo-49. Intentional cross channel inteference. Colonel Amish told me this information should be relayed to you and Major Ruth," the recon unit stated, sounding entirely serious, "Target Designate 'Wild Lion' has been spotted leaving the eastern side of the base, over. Groundside tangos advancing towards the 8th regiment's position. Please advise."

Randall's eyes widened. Target Designate 'Wild Lion'.

Shepard.

"Fall back to 8th regiment positions. If Major Ruth can hear this, prepare to be reinforced. I'm bringing reinforcements to back you up," he ordered, leaning down to grab the shield again, strapping it back onto his arm, feeling its massive weight this time befall his right arm instead of his left, preparing to make the crossing again, "What's the composition of the enemy force?"

"Massive, sir. An army," Zebra-5 replied, the sound of their retreating footsteps heard over the radio, "They've got a krogan battalion, a battalion of Blue Suns and another battalion of Eclipse. They've got a lot of mech support, a bunch of heavies and they're roughly the same size as the 8th: we'll lose whatever numerical advantage we have, and then some."

Randall nodded, continuing to talk as he rushed across the bridge, again reeling as the turrets bombarded his shield, but was left unharmed as he finished the crossing, "We have mechs too: Ruth, have your troops fall back behind the mines and establish defensive positions. Have your Atlas mechs behind your guardians and your Ramparts up front...hold them back. I'll take what troops I can and meet up with you. I've got a plan for how we can destroy them."

Switching comms again, he this time contacted Amish himself. He dropped his shield for the final time, tapping Leng's shoulder. The assassin turned to him irritatingly, but frowned even further when he saw Randall frantically waving at him to follow. Grabbing his sword, he sheathed it and rushed after Randall, who was now making best speed for BSA.

A moment later, Amish's voice came over the comms, "Major Ezno. I expect this to be a situation report."

"Drastic, colonel," Randall stated, crouching behind some crates as one of the armatures spotted him and opened fire. Leng joined him, still looking confused as to what was going on, "Shepard's made a move. He's got a two thousand strong force barrelling straight for the right flank. I'm taking some troops to reinforce it..." he turned to Leng, nodding, "...sir, this is our chance. With our two forces engaging each other, the chaos will mean nobody will be paying attention. If we can lure Shepard away...we can kill him."

Silence over the radio, the colonel pondering his request. Randall silently hoped he would accept, even though he had no personal stake in killing Shepard. It's just business. He's our enemy, and he needs to die. An unfortunate fact, but he brought it upon himself. Finally, Amish responded, sounding hesitant, "You seem fairly confident, major. Are you absolutely sure you can do this? You'll only get one shot."

He noted Leng's grin, as if he was a child who had just received his first present on Christmas. He sighed, nodding reluctantly, "It has to be done. And if we fail, we can still escape intact and try again. But if you don't at least try...we're obligated to, colonel. I wouldn't commit to this unless I was sure we could do it."

"Very well," Amish replied, "I will inform Petrovsky, but as operational commander, I give you the greenlight. Do what you must to lure Shepard away and quietly dispose of him. Without him, Aria's leadership will make defeating this insurgency a menial task. You have my sanction to commence the attack. For humanity."

"For humanity," Randall mimicked, followed by Leng. Turning off the comm, Randall barely got a word out before the assassin spoke, "So we're finally doing it. You're starting to earn my respect, Ezno."

He rolled his eyes, "I don't give a damn about your respect. I do this because we must, not because of your petty jealously," he held a hand up, cutting off any further objection from the assassin, "Don't say anything else...just do. You are going to tke some of your phantoms and advance ahead my relief forces. Once you get there, disperse them and locate Shepard. Do not engage him straight away. Find him, track his movements. Once I've arrived, I'll give you the go ahead to lure Shepard off the battlefield. Do only that. You will lure him to an isolated area, and then once we've trapped him, it's weapons free. We will take him down together."

Leng narrowed his eyes to slits, clearly not 'respecting' Randall as much as he initially claimed, "I am not stupid, Ezno. I understand we must work together to defeat him. I will lure him the best way I know how. He is so very easy to antagonize."

He nodded, "Kill a member of his squad if you deem it necessary to attract his undivided attention...but do not make an obsession out of it. We're here to kill him, not torture him. We're not here for your games."

The assassin mumbled under his breath, before grabbing his sword and running off, activating his cloak once more. Exhaling with some annoyance, he turned back to where he had been trying to reach, keeping low so as to remain outside the notice of the armatures above. Finally reaching the position where he had left Sergeant Farques, he found only several more corpses ontop of those from before, Farques' among them.

Then, the familiar screech of descending engines.

He fell prone, rolling onto his back as he looked up into the air to see the belly of the dropship as it passed by. He felt the reverbrations through the deck from its bombardment, even hearing the thump of a body nearby, likely having been thrown across the courtyard.

He quickly got back to his feet, taking note of the carnage left behind by the recent attack. Luckily, only a few soldiers were killed this time...as opposed to the dozen of last. With the dropship now gone, the dispersed troopers rushed back to their defensive positions, desperately escaping the plasma fire of the geth.

Good. Now I know my target.

Basking in the safety of his cover, he quickly rushed over to the dead Farques and his men, grabbing hold of the sergeant's body and roughly tossing it away, looking for any sort of weapon he could use against the geth ship. Luckily, as he shifted two or more cadavers apart, he found it soon enough. There, hidden between the two of them and buried under their bodies, was an M-560 Triburst Missile Launcher, otherwise known as the Hydra.

Designed by the Alliance, the Hydra had four rocket pods at he front of it, forming a square-like shape. Each barrel is loaded with a missile, and when fired, the weapon fired three missiles in quick succession. Each missile had three shaped charges inside, doubling its usual explosive payload. When used on a single target, the result was devastating, usually ending in the complete decimation of the victim on the opposite end. When used on multiple targets (as it had a lock on feature), the effects remained significant, with each rocket possessing the explosive firepower to heavily damage a shielded Atlas. It was probably the most powerful explosive-based heavy weapon aside from the M-920 Cain, and with it, Randall had his weapon of choice.

He pulled it out, quickly pulling the rocket pods out. He did this by extending each barrel outwards so he could check to makes sure it was loaded. Each chamber was loaded with two missiles, allowing for two 'tribursts' before forcing the user to reload. The weapon was unused, each of its eight missiles still loaded into the tubes. Satisfied, he clicked them back into place, holding the weapon firmly as he looked back up, keeping an eye on the two armatures. They hadn't spotted him yet, and he knew that if he wanted to get a good firing line at the dropship, he would have to get onto the rooftops.

Where the armatures were.

He looked between them and his launcher, knowing he had to make a decision. I have enough missiles loaded for two kills. I can neutralize one of the armatures, but once I do, I'll only have one more salvo for the geth attack ship...I'll have to make each missile count. I'll only get one chance.

In the end, he made his choice, finger guiding itself gently infront of the trigger. Very well. First, the right most armature. Take it out, I can jump straight onto the rooftop. The second armature will be distracted long enough for me to eliminate the dropship.

He turned to a squad of troopers nearby, keying his comm, "All of you, fire upon the left armature! Keep it distracted! I'll take out the one on the right! Suppressing fire!"

The squad responded immediately to his commands, guiding out of their cover to fire directly upon the armature on their side. Gunfire pelted its kinetic barriers, forcing it to turn and address the new threat...including the right armature.

It was now vulnerable.

Popping out from behind the crates, he fell to one knee, taking aim with the Hydra. He lowered the sights over the geth walker, listening as three beeps on the weapon's side indicating he had a lock-on for each missile. The butt pressed firmly against his shoulder, he took the shot: his finger held down the trigger.

He grunted as the first rocket exploded from the first tube, the second spinning into place with a clunk. The back blast as intense, smoke blowing in his face, but he held on tightly, reeling as the second missile left the second tube. Finally, the third and final missile fired, all of this occurring in merely two seconds. A long stream of three missiles, in single file, streaking towards their victim.

The geth assault tank stumbled as the first missile made impacted, the colossal explosion causing it to stumble to its side, screeching electronically. Its kinetic barriers were annihilated on impact, but largely left the armature intact. It twisted its optics to find the new threat, only for the second missile to strike it directly in the optics. Without barriers and possessing limited armor in that area, its head simply disappeared as the bright, orange blast consumed everything from the neck upwards. By the time the smoke cleared, the armature twitching due to its decapitated body, the third and final missile struck in the belly. This burst lifted the armature off the ground, causing it to topple to its side, smoke and flames licking across its form. It landed with a bang, utterly silent, body decimated by the Hydra assault.

The squad, having lost half its continegent, continued to fight the final armature, but howled triumphantly at the geth's destruction. There was now only one armature, and with its comrade gone, a gaping hole of opportunity that Randall could now take advantage of.

Racing forward, Hydra still under arm, Randall got ready to activate his thruster pack, finding the structure was just under half the height of the pack's maximum velocity. Fortunate in this discovery, he quickly reached the side of the building, and initiated his pack. His entire body jolted as he shot upwards, quickly zooming in on the rooftops within seconds. Completely leaving the ground, he cut off all thrust as he felt himself move past the edge. With momentum being the only factor keeping him from outright falling, he guided himself over the rooftop, falling into a roll that left him crouched next to the smoking remains of the now deceased geth walker.

He was just in time too: his head snapped up as he heard an ear piercing sonic boom, finding the dropship decloaking in the distance as it banked a hard turn, bringing it back to facing the direction of the courtyard, and approaching at a rapid pace. His estimates gave him about six seconds before it was ontop of him.

Acting quickly, he raised the launcher, pinning the sights directly on his primary target. He steadied his balance, allowing for the three beeps to assure him that he had a lock on. Now he just had to wait...if he fired too soon, the dropship could drop decoys or simply swerve out of the way, and if he fired too late, the same could result. He had to time it perfectly...without fail.

Wait. Be patient. Steady your aim. Count down the seconds until proximity becomes acceptable. Don't give it to time to perform maneveurs, and fire just close enough that all three missiles are guaranteed to hit. I want it to feel every, single, punch.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

He pulled down and held the trigger, once again shaking as three, rocket-propelled projectiles roared from their tubes, Randall lowering his weapon as he watched the rockets close the distance. The dropship, now too moving in too fast to move away and carrying too much momentum, could do nothing as the first two missiles splattered across its hull, cracking its barriers in time for the third strike to erupt along its bow. The blast tore the front of the dropship in half, the shockwave causing Randall to stumble back slightly, hand infront of his face as he felt the heat wash over him.

Destroyed, the back end of the ship spun wildly out of control, Randall watching as it glided across the area, narrowly missing the bridge and the courtyard, to slam into the bunker's exterior below the bridge, the massive bang concluded by one final fireball, the dropship's demise complete as what was left slid quietly into Omega's depths.

Tossing away the now empty Hydra, Randall breathed slightly, but didn't give himself time to celebrate his triumph, immediately grabbing his rifle and letting it collapse into his hands. He turned towards the geth armature, making sure it-

He growled angrily as his barriers snapped away instantly, a plasma bolt striking him in the side. He fell to one knee, quickly raising his other arm, emitting an omni-shield as more plasma rounds like it slammed it into its orange, flash forged suface. The armor around the wound hissed angrily, and he gritted his teeth in pain, the burns underneath likely far more severe that was on the surface. He felt as if he was on fire, and he found nothing but blackened skin beneath, still sizzling from the recent impact of plasma.

The second armature had caught on quickly, its head turned to face him fully, pelting him relentlessly. He could see its optics beginning to glow too: the formation of a siege pulse. His bruises had mostly healed, so while the hole in his side hurt immensely, it was manageable, and he quickly deactivated his shield, rolling to the side just as the siege pulse fired, arcing through the space he had been in before to strike the rooftop's edge behind him, taking a huge chunk of it and raining rubble into the alley below.

He primed a frag grenade and immediately tossed it, and a second later, whipped out his rifle in a flash, firing six bursts straight into the armature even before the grenade hit the ground.

The armature barely felt the bullets, but it certainly felt the grenade, which rolled beneath its feet before detonating. Its barriers absorbed the majority of the blast, but severely weakened them. Randall prepared to lay down the pressure, reaching down to prime another grenade, this time an EMP. Just as he was grabbing it from his back however, he heard the telltale scream of a dropship.

No, two screams.

He looked up, watching as the two dropships swooped in, apparently summoned by the death of their compatriot. Immediately locking onto him, Randall had mere seconds to holster his rifle, spin around and run before they began pulverizing the vicinity of plasma shells. Combined with the tracing fire of the armature's machine gun behind him, Randall found himself in the flight for his life as two ships and a geth tank ganged up on the manhunter in an attempt to avenge both of their dead. While most missed, he could feel them getting closer...yet again, so was the rooftop's edge. He just kept running, and running, his legs propelling him forward like the wheels of a Mako...never stopping...only doing so if they were broken.

Reaching the edge he leapt off, huddling himself into a ball mid plunge. He could feel nothing but air rushing around him, cooling his skin and chilling his bones. The wound in his side flared angrily in protest, but he ignored it as he got closer to freedom. Once he saw he was closer to the ground, he activated his thruster pack, which immediately began to slow his descent. Within moments, he hit the ground with a thud, his arms and legs unfolding to land in a crouch.

Without taking the time to absorb his surroundings, he turned and rushed through the nearest alleyway, out of sight of the enemy dropships. Once he was back in the courtyard, he tapped his comms, moving onto the next step of his plan, "6th regiment, this is Romeo-49. Enemy dropship eliminated and one of those armatures is down. Focus fire on the second and take it down. I want some of the D-09s manned and pushing the geth back, but do not cross the bridge until air support confirms the turrets have been taken out. I want A, F and U companies to accompany me to the right flank. Target Designate 'Wild Lion' is on the field, and is a priority target to intercept and destroy. Assemble at BSA. We move out in the next two minutes."

With that said, Randall closed the comm, grabbed a medi-gel packet, and dabbed some of it on his wound, dulling the sensation. With his injury tended to, he reloaded his harrier, thoughts moving to the awaiting battle to the east.

Whatever it was, it would decide the tide of the battle. And, if Leng and Randall succeeded, the fate of the UGC itself.

{Loading...}

August 6, 2186

0804 hours.

Eastern Esplanade, Aria's Bunker, Tuhi District, Omega.

Second War for Omega, Battle of the Tuhi District.

Captain Marcus Lee Shepard, Military Advisor Garrus Vakarian, Shadow Broker Liara T'Soni, Master Thief Kasumi Goto, First Lieutenant Jack, Ruler of the Terminus Aria T'Loak, Lieutenant Bray, Lieutenant Nakmor Dreg, General Nyreen Kandros, Battalion Commander Urdnot Grunt, Lieutenant Augusna Palisus, Captain Jiiir Shios.

Now it was on.

He ducked, raising his pulse rifle to his shoulder and feeling it thump repeatedly as he mowed down an unshielded centurion trying to cover the retreat of his comrades, only for Marcus' high penetration geth rifle to pile bullet after bullet into him, killing him in seconds. He shouted for the Eclipse mechs to push forward, sprinting forward as the covering fire of a YMIR mech's heavy machine gun devastated an entire Cerberus squad, allowing him to advance.

Their attack was intended to be quick and decisive, but it seemed Petrovsky had predicted this move: an entire enemy regiment stood ready to repulse the UGC counterattack, but that didn't mean they were going to turn tail and run back to the bunker: no, they were here now. And they were going to win.

Since he called the meeting with Aria, Nyreen and General Golo after the battle began, Marcus knew the only way to win would be to attack the enemy head on. A charge across the bridge would result in too many casualties even if their chances of success were 50/50. An aerial deployment would also be too costly with the enemy gunships and fighters roaming the sky, but it seemed in the end that Aria had come up with the solution: an eastern passage, linking directly to the Eastern Esplanade, and giving direct, flanking access to the courtyard. Perfect for breaking the siege, and it was hoped they could take Cerberus by surprise to maximize the efficiency of such an attack. As it was, they were committing a large majority of their forces to this maneveur, with the rest hanging back to provide support to the vanguard at the entrance, or to repel ground forces if they managed to infiltrate from a different direction.

So far, surprise was no longer an option: Shios, the commander of the Eclipse forces, had one of her forward recon teams report back to her, and it seemed Cerberus had already moved one of their two regiments to the east to counter that maneveur, Petrovsky almost certainly predicting an attack from that area. But while the UGC would be facing a fully prepared, entrenched enemy of equal numerical value, he still had the advantage in superior troops (namely krogan and expendable mechs), an entire battalion of tech experts and a squad of biotics led by the galaxy's most powerful biotics: this meant that even Cerberus was entrenched, they soon wouldn't be.

There was also the Cerberus issue of a lack of air support: while they still had fighters and bombers, they were entirely focused on bombing the front of the FOB, meaning they wouldn't be able to assist effectively. Any gunships they had were chased off by the geth and likely destroyed by now, and any more would easily be fended off. Unfortunately for them, the Blue Suns and Eclipse had plenty of gunships...and they had no problems bringing them to bare too.

Another retreating squad, this one holding a missile launcher, kept moving back, their guardians holding their shields up and forward, while their assault troopers ocassionally popped out to provide suppressing fire. They stood no chance, a Blue Suns gunship swerving around to their side to slam them with its M25 autocannon, the devastating firepower chewing through them like a krogan's teeth did varren meat. Blood and viscera splattered across the vicinity as heads popped, torsos shredded and screams echoed. It was meat grinder, and despite their most valiant attempts, they were helpless to stop them. The missile trooper fired a missile off at the gunship, managing to down its already weakened shields, but it mattered little, the trooper meeting his fate soon afterwards via Xiphos 34 rocket, which hit him directly, causing him to disappear into a fine, crimson fog.

Another assault trooper got lucky however, his own missile launcher slamming into the side of the gunship, causing it to recoil backwards. The pilot tried to bring it around to deal with the new target, only for a nemesis to snipe him through the cockpit, blue blood splattering all over the tinted windows, causing him to disappear behind its thick canopy. The vehicle spun out of control, and without a pilot to guide it back to safety, it flew back violently, killing three of Grunt's krogan commandos, injuring another and annihilating an Eclipse squad. The injured krogan got off with a mangled hand, but the injury was enough to send him into a blood rage, the krogan roaring mightily as he charged the enemy team responsible. They pelted him with gunfire, orange blood scattering itself across the krogan's path, but he remained unstoppable. He collided with the centurion, bashing him across the head with his assault rifle.

He proceeded to pound the soldier's skull in ruthlessly, reducing it to red jelly. Still being pelted with bullets, the krogan turned around, shrugging them off as he grabbed the nearest assault trooper, lifted him off the ground and then slammed him back to the deck, head first, snapping it with a loud crack. He swatted the shotgun out of the hand of another, before raising his rifle with one hand and tearing his head apart. He was impaled through the back by a phantom, causing blood to spurt from his maw, but this merely enraged the commando further, who reared his head back and headbutted her, before turning around and, snarling, wrapped his hands around her and crushed her windpipe. In the end, it was a dragoon with a grenade launcher that finally put the commando down, the krogan practically eating it as it arced into his mouth, exploding inside and taking his upper torso with it. The lower half collapsed ontop of the dead phantom, lifeless.

A singularity appeared infront of another enemy squad, this one full of guardians, lifting them into the air and causing them to spiral around uselessly, their shields made pointless. Marcus audibly thanked Liara before he joined his fire with Garrus', turning it into a game of who could kill the most soldiers as they shot them down. The singularity soon dissipated, causing their gravitationally dispersed corpses to simply flop to the deck.

He heard Grunt's furious roar, turning to see a guardian, who had been playing dead, grab his boot knife and stab the krogan in the shin as he stalked past. The krogan turned to look down at him, looking annoyed at the mere bug bite, before tearing his foot free and bringing it back down, squashing the guardian's skull. He scrubbed his foot along the deck for equal measure before lifting his foot up again, shaking it to shake off all the unwanted, slippery flesh that had stuck to it. He leaned down and ripped the blade free, orange blood oozing from the wound, but the krogan commander ignoring it as he trudged forward, claymore blasting the shield of second guardian, causing him to stumble. He fired again, once again stumbling the guardian before he closed the distance.

He lowered his shotgun, grabbing hold of the top of the shield as he pulled it down to the ground. Head exposed, Grunt landed his shotgun ontop of the shield, using it as a stabilizer, before pulling the trigger and blowing the trooper's head apart. Blinking his eyes to wash away the blood stuck in them, he pulled his shotgun back up and kicked the shield away, leaving the headless guardian to fall down. Stepping around him, he strafed to the left, dodging a phantom's blade before shooting her in the hands, the claymore's large, tungsten slug causing the hands to simply disappear, sword clattering to the floor. She screamed, falling to her knees as she looked at her handless appendages. Grunt simply shook his head, mouth creased in a lack of impression before he grabbed the top of her head with one hand, and roughly twisted it, snapping her neck.

"Fall back!" a centurion shouted, "All units, fall back to Position Beta! Where the fuck is our air support!? They've got gunships! All heavies, focus on the damn gunships! Squads Alpha, Kilo, Foxtrot, Golf, Quebec and Casper retreat! Suppressing fire on Position Charlie!"

He slid into cover behind a pile of bodies, reaching behind his back and priming an incendiary grenade. He tossed it at what had been identified as Squad Foxtrot, watching it land just in the direction of their retreat. Noticing it too late, the squad attempted to scatter, the explosive detonating beneath the feet of their centurion. Flames flashed across the vicinity, the centurion being incinerated immediately while his guardian bodyguard screamed as their bodies were consumed by fire. The rest of the team scattered, only to be cut down by a platoon of Blue Suns legionnaires and their vindicator battle rifles.

Advance. Push. Kill. Advance. Push. Kill.

Squad Golf found themselves in the crosshairs of Jack's tango squad, her students letting it rip with a flurry of warps, throws, pulls and shockwaves. He even watched as Jack herself, her arm reared forward and projecting a 'backlash' biotic hoplon shield infront of her, suddenly disappeared only to appear meters away, directly behind a combat engineer. She reached up and snapped his neck, before biotically swatting aside five assault troopers and shooting another in the back of the head. Her students mopped up the rest, either shooting or using their biotics to devastate the enemy's ranks.

Shios and Palisus worked in tandem: an almost alien sight when considering their organization's history. The asari Eclipse captain covered the turian Blue Suns lieutenant with her biotics, using a mixture of barriers and reaves to support him while the turian, favouring his vindicator battle rifle and tech armor, picking off targets at a distance. Regardless of their original mercenary affiliation, it was certainly a sight to behold seeing them working together, even if their Stormtrooper combat armor was a different color.

They were like a freight train: constantly driving forward, rolling over anything that got in their way. Not for once did the retreating Cerberus units and their 'suppression fire' ever halt them: whenever the mercs lost their momentum, their gunships were there to chew some dust. If the gunships weren't enough, you could be damn sure Grunt's army of wrecking machines did the job. It helped that the Eclipse had an army of mechs at their disposal: LOKI mechs forming a support line of weak, but numerically superior, cannon fodder supplemented by harassing FENRIS mechs, heavily armoured YMIRs and nimble and airborne HEL drones. Even with only the bare minimum of his squad present (only having Liara, Garrus and Kasumi to call upon), Marcus had never felt as on the move as he did at that moment.

Within minutes, the few Cerberus troops left had given up on a fighting withdrawal and were running full pelt, backs turned and everything. The streets were littered with Cerberus dead, although it had its fair share of UGC casualties too: at least a few squads of Eclipse and Blue Suns lay deceased, the wrecks of many LOKI, FENRIS and HEL drones scattered about as well. Even several of Grunt's men had been killed, although not much. Only one of their gunships had been taken down, but it was enough.

Three Eclipse and four Blue Suns gunships covered their advance from the air, raining missiles and bullets down upon the withdrawing enemy. Their payload stopped once they saw the enemy in retreat, and Marcus knew they had to press forward, but cautiously.

By my estimates, that was at least a hundred or so troops we killed. Nowhere near the full compliment of the enemy. The rest of them will be waiting nearby. That was likely a recon element: a probing attack, if anything else. They want to see what we've got.

Grunt apparently thought the same, "They're on the run, battlemaster. But I don't think it's because they're routing."

He nodded, agreeing, "All units, stay frosty. I fully expect the enemy to be waiting around the corner...gunships, run an aerial sweep. We'll move ahead, but we're counting on you to dish out the hurt when we need. On that note, all forces: move forward. Cover all flanks and keep pushing. It's not over yet, but we're getting there. Make our presence known."

With his squad at his side, Grunt and Jack not far behind, he continued his steady jog towards the enemy's lines, always keeping his pulse rifle up, eyes scanning the area for any possible ambushes. As time went on and they closed in on the streets surrounding the courtyard, he could see Blue Suns, Eclipse and UKC troops steadily outrunning him, while their mech forces (with the exception of the faster FENRIS' and HELs) lagged behind, forced to stalk forward due to their inability to run.

Marcus watched as the last of the retreating pro-human troops disappeared around the numerous street corners. However, Marcus didn't fail to see the helmet of a combat engineer peek out from behind one to look at them, before quickly pulling out when he saw he had been spotted. Marcus frowned at that, motioning for his squad to halt when he saw it.

Wait...something isn't right.

It was then that his eyes trailed down to the ground. Only then did he truly see it. Dozens of black, circular pads along the ground, small and largely unrecognizable. They were usually cloaked to conceal them, but every tactical cloak had to recharge eventually, and these mines had just deactivated theirs. Luckily for Cerberus, a platoon of Grunt's men, as well as several from the Eclipse and Blue Suns, had already begun walking over them when they decloaked. One by one, they appeared...dozens of them, materializing out of thin air seemingly, littering the street and covering every access point.

They wanted us to follow...right into their trap.

The mines were clearly remotely activated, as the combat engineer around the corner, not to mention the likely presence of many more of them, determined. It was too late for Marcus to call them back, and he was forced to watch as Cerberus detonated the mines. In a cascade of flashes, a sight akin to fireworks going off, all the UGC forces that been present vanished, screaming heard as they were blown up, exploded, ripped to shreds or rendered limbless. The sheer force of the blasts was intense, with bits of deck plating being ripped off the ground and the sides of buildings either being permanently scarred with black scorches or tearing holes in them.

By the time the smoke thinned out for them to see clearly, it was over. Every mine had blown up, ruining the landscape. Everywhere the blasts touched was blackened, with panelling having been ripped up to expose the circuitry, sewrage and piping below. Some had been ruptured, water spewing into the air in huge spurts, some of it murky and some of it barely defined as clean. It was made even worse when most of the water shooting up was now coated in the blood of those caught in the blasts.

None of the mercenary or krogan soldiers that had traversed the minefield survived, their remains scattered about in unrecognizable shards and chunks as part of a gallery of deceased UGC. From the looks of it, their deaths had at least been instantaneous, but it had taken quite a chunk of their forces, and it was clear that had been Cerberus' intention the whole time.

We fell right into their trap.

Even now, he watched as at least a squad's worth of combat engineers emerged from cover, quick as lightning, taking advantage of the commotion to line up in single file, dropping to their knees as they reached behind their backs and grabbed their individual sentry turrets, dropping them to the deck and activating them. Realizing what was happening, Marcus burst through a nearby stream of water, this one green and smelly, ignoring the disgusting unpalatable water soaking his armor as he rushed for the nearest building, "Everybody, get to cover! Far left!"

They quickly heeded his command, all ground forces rushing to the left where there was plenty of buildings to hide behind to escape the sentry gun fire, while their gunships engaged the combat engineers, seeking to destroy the turrets so their ground units could advance. Unfortunately, they were quickly chased off when two squads along the rooftops behind the sentry gun emplacements appeared, wielding numerous types of anti-aircraft weaponry. They pulled back, managing to get out of range of the heavy weapons, but unable to break the Cerberus line.

He hit the wall on the nearest building, nodding as Garrus, Kasumi, Liara, Nyreen and Aria quickly arrived beside him. He wiped some of the repulsive substance from his visor, doing so just enough so he could see properly. But just as Marcus thought things couldn't get any worse, they did.

Appearing on both sides of the rooftops behind them, both left and right, were five nemesi (ten in total), all of them crouching and taking aim at their troops below. Marcus only just spotted them and, already in position, he was too late to call out before they picked targets and opened fire. Ten raptor sniper rifles coughed and echoed, and three Blue Suns turians, one Eclipse salarian, five of Aria's men and one of the krogan fell, their heads blown wide open.

"Stand still, you piece of shit!" Aria snapped, reaching up with a glowing biotic hand to lift one of the nemesi on the left into the air, before roughly pulling her down towards them. She let go about halfway, watching with glee as the nemesi fell to her death, a crack heard as she simply thudded onto the floor. She groaned, trying to move, only for Shios to pin her to the ground and place a round through the back of her skull with her pistol.

The rest of the nemesi went prone, keeping out of any biotic's reach but still managing to keep an eye on their targets. Marcus gritted his teeth at their new situation, pissed off that he had allowed them to fall into this situation. Of course Petrovsky had predicte their every move...even when he said he wouldn't underestimate the General, he usually ended up doing so anyway.

He was quick to act, motioning to Bray and Dreg, who were covering themselves behind omni-shields, "Bray, Dreg, gather your men, form a defensive picket. Jack, have you and your students use your biotics to cover as many of our men as possible. I want the Eclipse and Blue Suns to perform suppressive action on the nemesi immediate to your vicinity. Grunt, have you and your krogan grab their heavies and suppress the nemesi to the far right. Aria, Liara, coordinate biotics and help the 1st Aralakh kill those nemesi. Garrus, use your sniper rifle and kill as many as possible. Kasumi, Nyreen, you're with me," he turned to the turian, eyebrow raised, "That is, if you're okay with me giving the commands."

The female turian simply shrugged, serious as ever, "I'll follow your lead, Shepard."

He nodded, "Good. You're going to have to if we want to smash the opposition."

True to his orders, the UGC force scrambled to deal with the scenario, Grunt's troops firing their grenade and missile launchers across the street while Liara hurled singularities and Aria flares. Everybody else just focused their attention on the enemy directly above them, desperate to break the strangle hold Cerberus was likely trying to tighten.

Then, reinforcements arrived: or, perhaps, finally caught up.

Rockets and machine gun fire joined the stream of gunshots pelting the rooftops, and Marcus turned to watch as an entire skirmish line of LOKI mechs, with four YMIRs behind them, moved in to assist, locking onto the Cerberus snipers and firing upon them with everything they had. It was enough to keep the enemy entirely unable to fire back, not willing to risk having their heads blown off in trying to attain a kill shot. This meant that the only real threat now was coming from the right.

Just as Marcus was moving to check on the turrets, Garrus appeared beside him, looking to have an idea if his thoughtful look was anything to go by, "Marcus, I've got a plan on how to take care of those nemesi. With all our forces down here keeping them suppressed, I can use my jetpack to sneak up behind them and take them out. Then, from up there, I can get an accurate shot at the snipers across the street. Afterwards, I could even take out those heavies so that our gunships can clear those turrets."

He sighed, regarding the turian's plan in his head. A part of him said he should be skeptical, but the other, larger part, told him that if he anyone could pull it off, it was the man formerly known as Archangel. He gave the turian a single nod, "Very well. Our forces down here will keep them occupied while you sneak around and take them out. If you have an opening to deal with those heavies, take it."

The turian nodded, and quickly grabbed the helmet attached to his side, clipping it on over his head. Holstering his modified Reaper sniper rifle and swapping it for his Vindicator battle rifle, he vaulted over their cover and rushed for the building, doing so quickly enough so as to not draw the attention of the soon-to-be dead nemesi above.

Luckily for them, Garrus was successful. As Marcus had Kasumi and Nyreen join him in opening fire on the hiding enemy snipers, doing their part to keep up the ruse of a pinned UGC force. Meanwhile, Garrus triumphantly reached the alleyway parting the two buildings, and activated his jetpack. Marcus could only watch as the twin thrusters on his back ignited, blowing him upwards at tremendous speed and velocity. He switched them off as he reached the top, rolling onto the rooftop and out of view, leaving Marcus to imagine what was going on up there.

A few moments passed: Marcus reloaded his pulse rifle three times, raking the roof's edge with pulse rounds while Nyreen and Kasumi fired their Pugio heavy pistol and Locust SMGs respectively alongside him, the former even ocassionally dispatching a biotic warp or throw to add to the suppression, the threat of being successfully caught in a biotic blast adding to the nemesi's deterrent towards poping their head out.

Just when Marcus was about to tap the comm for a status update, he watched as one of the nemesi finally appeared over the edge: but instead of facing them and readying a shot, she was slowly backing towards them with her back turned, sniper rifle raised at a target behind her. She cried out as her head snapped back, the nemesis going limp before dropping her sniper rifle, plummeting off the edge where she slammed into the street below.

A moment passed, and Garrus' voice, "Nemesi on the left flank neutralized," a Reaper sniper rifle appeared over the rooftop's edge, and Marcus immediately knew it was the turian, "Preparing to relieve the right of their pest problem. Remind me to remind James later just how useful sniper rifles can be."

Nyreen looked lessed than amused by the comment, standing up as she moved to reload, only to find herself out of thermal clips. Kasumi handed one out to her, and the turian gratefully took it, bowing her head in thanks before slamming the clip into the pistol's chamber, "I didn't think battlefield banter appropriate at this moment."

Garrus just chuckled, before punctuating his quip with a loud, rapturous bang, his rifle having found a target and kissed them with hot lead. On the other side, one of the nemesi fell back, eliminated, "Battlefield banter is always appropriate. Besides, I'm currently carrying the team here. Show me a little appreciation by letting him have some jokes."

Marcus shrugged, smiling, "He's got a point, Nyreen. Besides, they're all bad jokes, so he's got to have some time to say them. You know, get them over with."

"I'll remember you said that, Marcus," the turian remarked, followed by another loud bang and another dead nemesis, "Especially when you crack another one of your pitiful jokes." Another bang. And another. Garrus was on a killing spree, especially considering all the nemesi that were dropping like flies on the other side.

"Oh, but Garbear..." Marcus shot back, grinning from ear to ear.

Another shot, another kill, "I'm going to make sure Kasumi comes up with a nickname for you so that we're even. Can't have me getting all the appreciation, after all."

"I'm sure its out of pity, turian. You're too ugly for natural love."

One final shot marked the death of the last of Cerberus' attempts at a flanking maneveur, "Well, this ugly turian just saved the day. Now, if you'll excuse me...I've got a long-range date with some heavies, and a whole lot of hot, lead-based kisses to give them. I'll leave you to think of more insults."

"You're a turian!" Marcus jested, chuckling to himself despite knowing exactly what Garrus had meant, "You have mandibles, not lips."

"Lips are disgusting anyway," Garrus tossed back.

"Something we can agree on at least," Nyreen replied, a slight smile on her face.

"Hey!" Liara intervened, "You are both dating people with lips, thank you very much!"

Garrus was quick to object to that, "Flirting with, not dating."

"And it was dated," Nyreen interjected. She paused for a moment, rethinking that comment, "Actually...I don't think a whole lot of dating was done at all, if I recall."

"Something a certain commander is very keen to continually forget!"

"Weren't you dating a few heavies?"

"Oh, you mean these guys?" A loud report sounded over the comms, quickly echoing across the street, "Well, I kissed one of them but I think a little too hard. You see, his head exploded, and he's sorta dead," another bang, "Damn, I must be a real heavy hitter. These guys are literally blown away by me," two more shots, the turian whistling, "That's two more down. By the time I'm done, I'm going to set the record date for most dates in the smallest amount of time!"

A few minutes passed as the group silently stood there, gripping their weapons anxiously, waiting for the gunships appearing as a sign to move in. After about five minutes, Garrus' voice tuned in once again, tone full of giddy success, "And that...is what I call support. I've signalled the gunships to move in. You're all clear, Marcus!"

"Copy that!" raising his rifle, he rose one hand, motioning forward, "All units, continue the assault!"

Just as Marcus cleared the corner, leading the assault, their gunships rushed back in, twin engine thrusters roaring through the air as they shot towards the enemy turrets. Five of them were destroyed in a series of blasts as the gunships fired their rockets at them, blowing them apart. The last seven sentry guns opened fire, but only managed to tear apart a few LOKI and FENRIS mechs before the gunships came back around, shredding them with their autocannons. With the enemy turret formation cleared, the UGC ground forces were cleared to continue their march on the enemy flank.

His boots continued to clang and squelch as he dashed through the sludge and watery excrement that had caked the deck from the ruptured sewrage lines, ignoring the few recognizable remnants of dead soldiers as he raised his rifle and fired at the nearest combat engineer. It took two bursts to kill the engineer: one to down his shields, the other to put him down. All around him, his battalions joined their guns with his, and together the dozen or so Cerberus engineers were mowed through, his men paying them no mind as they rushed past their bodies, barrelling towards the enemy's central fortifications around the corner.

He felt Garrus arrive beside him, thrusters ceasing as he slammed into the ground beside him, combat rolling until he was standing again, battle rifle already out and primed, a fresh clip readied in its chamber and the turian nodding to Marcus his readiness. Together, the two comrades joined the front of their colossal formation, trudging mightily forward at a rapid pace as they rushed to meet Cerberus in one, final confrontation in the Tuhi district.

But then they rounded the corner.

As they reached the other side of the promenade, Marcus quickly realized the extent of the enemy entrenchment. A wide open area stood before them, filled to the brim with barricades and sandbags, blocking access to the courtyard and the only thing standing between them and total victory.

But this open area was nowhere near empty. A two thousand strong enemy force, with hundreds of assault troopers, centurions, combat engineers, guardians, nemesi, phantoms and dragoons sat in fortified positions directly ahead of them. They looked to have been ready for their arrival, knowing full well what route the UGC would have to take and having planned accordingly. Behind their line was at least fourteen Atlas mechs, and an entire line of Ramparts. No armoured vehicles thankfully, but from the looks of it, the Cerberus regiment that was infront of them didn't really need it.

Marcus had the sense to order his men into cover before Cerberus had the chance to slaughter them in a massive crossfire. He strafed to the side, just dodging a shell from an Atlas mech, while the rest of them, and all the troops gathered there, fired their own weapons, pelting the air in a deadly maelstrom of death and lead. The rest of the UGC troops just managed to get into cover as well, not a single one falling to the onslaught. Garrus, Aria, Bray and Nyreen slammed into the wall beside him, followed by at least half the Eclipse battalion. The rest were on the other side, looking over at him, awaiting orders. Cerberus didn't stop firing, ensuring that the non-stop cacophony of their firepower would keep the UGC pinned right where they wanted them and unable to encroach on their troops any further.

"There has to be a way around this," Aria growled, flexing her fist angrily, "Some way to outflank them. Perhaps if we just charge, our numbers will be sufficient to break through their line."

Dreg was quick to dismiss that tactic in Marcus' place, "That would be foolish, Miss T'Loak. Half our forces would be butchered before they could even reach the enemy lines. And this is just one regiment. We could conquer them, but that would leave us vulnerable to the other regiment, which would make short work of us if they launched a counterattack. If we want to remain a player in this game, we must keep our forces largely intact."

"Then perhaps we can bomb them," Bray suggested, "Flank around, seize control of their artillery."

Garrus nodded, "A good plan...for a bit. The Cerberus air support would take them out without much effort. So we'd have a temporary advantage, against one regiment. Dreg's point still stands: Cerberus still has the numbers."

"I'll think of something," he stated. There has to be a way around. Perhaps we could use the rooftops. Or, we could go with Bray's plan and try to take out their artillery and use it for ourselves...but yet again, like Garrus said, that'd only be a temporary advantage. Fuck! There must be a-

"Shepard!" Grunt shouted out at him. He looked up, frowning at the krogan, wandering what he wanted, "Up above! We've got incoming!"

Indeed they did. Marcus only heard it at first: a low, distant hum, getting steadily louder. Soon, it was a cacophonus screech, illustrating the sound of high powered engines propelling a vehicle out of supersonic speeds. Then, he looked up and he saw it: an SX7A Hornet bomber, shooting down into low altitude as it swerved away from the bunker, rapidly descending to the point where it would ontop of them in mere moments. It was flanked by a pair of SX3 Thunderbolts, the fighters keeping a close distance so as to shield its bomber from enemy AA. Its payload likely already readied, the Hornet did not slow its descent, continuing to rush towards them at ever increasing speed, never slowing down for one moment as it reached the correct altitude for bombing, righted itself and moved forward at a consistent level.

Marcus knew they had absolutely no chance of dispersing quickly enough to avoid what was coming. In the end, he knew all they could do was press to the wall and hope for the best: hope that most of their forces survived...if any.

But just as he opened his mouth to bark what could be his final orders, another, more familiar, engine-based scream sounded from the east. The sound was also distant, but far closer, and coming in at an even faster pace.

What came next was both alarming and took them all by surprise. One moment, the bomber was there, still racing towards them. The next moment, it was spiralling out of control as three streams of plasma slammed into its side. Its left wing was blasted off by the first burst, which had ruptured its shields to slam into it. The second shredded the bow, and the third obliterated one of its two engines at the back. Trailing smoke and leaking flames out of its rear, the bomber was helpless as it spun uselessly out of control. A fourth burst of plasma annihilated the SX3 fighter on its left, causing to collapse in on itself as its forward momentum and the sudden inertia slamming into its left caused it to spasm in mid air. It eventually just exploded, a medium-sized fireball careening back towards the ground, melted debris shooting out in every direction. The second fighter broke off, flying away from the sudden attack.

It didn't take long the object of the UGC's sudden rescue to appear. A flight of four geth fighters, accompanied by two geth interceptors, shot by after their successful kills, chasing after the second Cerberus aircraft. As this occurred, the fireball of the destroyed fighter could be heard impacting the ground behind them, caving in through the roof of a building before collapsing inside several stories. The downblast caused the entire structure to simply collapse, concrete and disturbed metal supports flowing outward as they blew apart, sliding along the ground to create a heap of wreckage.

The bomber wasn't so lucky. The pilot likely already dead (likely having died of heat stroke due to the proximity of the plasma and its intensity, or killed by smoke inhalation, as this would be the only way to explain why they hadn't ejected yet), the bomber simply continued to spin mindlessly through the air, rushing towards the ground.

Right towards the enemy regiment.

They watched, simple observers, as the Cerberus onslaught of gunfire ceased as they took note of the Hornet's downward slope, and attempted to clear the area to avoid casualties. But it was too little, too late, and the UGC troops, most noticable of which was Aria, roared with glee as the bomber crashed into an Atlas mech at high speed. The bomber seemed to cave in from the impact, exploding in a violent display of explosive power. Spread outward like a dandelion that had been blown at, the fragmented wreckage of the bomber sliced apart those unlucky enough to get too close, either bissecting troopers, delimbing or impaling them. The Atlas that was hit was thrown back into the ground, hitting another and creating a domino effect with at least four other Atlases before the others were able to move aside, ceasing the cascade. The bomber's crash damage dealt, the Cerberus regiment quickly rearranged itself to stave off the UGC taking advantage of the situation.

Unfortunately for them, it was about to get worse.

Marcus' comm crackled as the geth fighters roared by, shooting down another Cerberus SX3, while the interceptors could be heard attacking the rest of the enemy air support bombarding the bunker, "Shepard, this is General Golo...thought you could use some help, so I called Gerrel for some backup. Those enemy aircraft were becoming a real pain. I'm also sending additional reinforcements towards your location...should be arriving any second now. And by additional, I mean quite a few thousand. Enjoy."

The comm went silent, but Marcus didn't need a reply to see what the quarian meant. He felt it.

A familiar tremor rocking the deck, intensifying with every charge forward, getting closer and closer. There was simple no mistaking it. Reinforcements had truly arrived.

Rachni. Thousands of them. They swarmed around each corner, all pointed towards the enemy troops keeping them pinned. Brood warriors, soldiers and workers...thousands upon thousands of rachni descended upon the enemy like an unstoppable plague, their red chitin and close proximity making it seem like the deck was flowing like water...an angry, crimson mob with a singular purpose, and only one goal: destroy Cerberus.

Marcus didn't need to wait. As the rachni rushed past them, Marcus roared for his own troops to join them, rolling around the corner and keeping to the side as he raised his rifle and fired at the nearest target. His squad wasn't far behind, their own weapons joining the fray followed by those of the krogan, Eclipse and Blue Suns. Even the gunships up ahead joined them, renewing their assault with a sharpened purpose. With a titular goal.

Destroy. Cerberus.

While visibly dismayed by the sudden appearance of angry insects surging towards them, Cerberus, to their credit, didn't give in easily. They opened fire on the enemy's advancing lines, and Marcus watched as dozens upon dozens of rachni workers were torn apart, along with several soldiers. The enemy fire was significant, giving everything they had into annihilating the rachni army that was fast ramming its way towards their flank.

Even the enemy artillery was focusing on the new threat. No longer targetting the bunker, the SPGs, M45 Goblins to be exact, spun their guns and trained them on the general position of the UGC assault forces. Soon, high explosive shells were raining down all around them, Marcus crying out as he was thrown to the side briefly by one exploding to his right, only able to right his position at the last moment, keeping his balance as he continued to sprint forward.

Artillery shells landed everywhere. Entire ranks of rachni were decimated by the combination of direct and indirect fire, shells pounding them in all areas, desperately trying to stall the enemy's advance by annihilating them into submission. Explosive pillars of smoke and debris rose in seemingly every direction, and Marcus and his squad felt themselves constantly being thrown around by it...but they remained determined, focused and most of all, motivated. They would let him down, and he would not let them down.

Almost there...once we close ranks, it's finished. We still have enough rachni to overpower them all.

In hindsight, it was a lost battle for the Cerberus regiment as soon as the rachni arrived. With the last of their air support driven away by the geth and a bomber having taken out a good chunk of their troops, they were left with nothing but increased firepower and what artillery pieces they possessed. Even then, the artillery only had long-range capability, and weren't equipped for short range attacks: that's what mortars were for. And sooner than they'd like, the UGC forces soon fell within that sphere, and the artillery fell silent as they could no longer fire upon the enemy.

Which just left the regiment. And in just a few seconds, ranks were closed. The rachni raced to meet the enemy troops, and their guardians rushed to meet them. In a clash of titans, the battle degenerated into hand-to-hand combat.

In reality, the guardians weren't even on the same level as the rachni. Workers quicky worked their way under their shields, behind their phalanx and began to crawl over them, distracting them long enough for their soldiers to move in and slice them up, tearing apart arms, legs and splitting heads open. Blood coughed into the air as the three lines of guardians were overwhelmed, followed by a fourth. Despite the artillery bombardment, they barely made a dent in the rachni's numbers, and thousands of them compared to pour into the collapsing right flank, slaughtering the Cerberus defenders. It was practically a meat grinder.

With the rachni ranks having thinned out on their side, Marcus danced and the rest of the troops darted around the annihilated guardian defenses and took the fight to them. He slammed the butt of his rifle into the side of a female centurion. She was knocked to the ground, and it didn't take long for Marcus to gold bars signifying the rank of Major stamped into her left chestplate. Growling, she raised her mattock and fired. The shots pinged off his shields uselessly, and he kicked it away before slashing his omni-blade across her exposed throat. Blood spat from the wound, and the regiment's commander was left to die in an evergrowing pool of her own blood.

Turning, he gunned down four assault troopers attempting to assist their commander before ducking under the baton of a swinging combat engineer, ramming his pulse rifle into the soldier's back and raking his plasma across his entire spine. The soldier spasmed from the attacks, and once finished, thudded to the ground, limp and unmoving, now nothing but a bloody cadaver.

He turned to his troops, ushering them forward, "Attack! Attack! Attack! Kill them all! Forward and don't hold anything back! Send them running back to Afterlife!"

Aria, with Bray and Dreg at her flanks, biotically charged into a dragoon before he could use his own biotics, sending him toppling to the ground. Whipping her shotgun out, she blew his head off, scattering his brains to the filthy floor. Turning, she ducked into a crouch and sent a shotgun shell straight into the leg of a phantom, blowing her leg off before she was unceremoniously ripped into bloody ribbons by Bray's assault rifle and Dreg's SMG.

He turned to see Nyreen being ganged up on by five assault troopers. Before he could move to help her however, Nyreen ducked the shock baton swing of one before shooting into his elbow from below, causing it to sickeningly crack as the round shattered bone, but also broke his arm by snapping it in the wrong direction. The trooper screamed before the comrade opposite him was thrown back by a biotic push. She shot the third in the head, followed by the fourth and fifth. She shot the first in the head as a mercy kill, and then finally the second before he could get back up.

Her gaze met his, and they both silently nodded to each other before the female turian took off once more, back arched and keeping herself beneath the enemy's fire.

She knows how to handle herself. She is the leader of the Talons, so that does count for something.

Everywhere he looked, Cerberus was being absolutely demolished. All their guardians had been committed to their phalanx, and the last of them had now fallen, their bodies making up a long, stretched out pile that the rachni were now shooting over as they rushed to greet the rest of the enemy. Grunt's krogan were demonstrating their superiority in close quarters combat, killing any Cerberus soldier who so much as twitched, on the ground or standing. The Blue Suns and Eclipse established a picket line, working together, as well as with Palisus and Shios, to support Aralakh battalion, supplemented by their YMIRs and what few LOKIs and HELs they have left.

The gunships focused on the Atlases and Ramparts, hammering them with rockets and their chin-mounted guns. About six of the Atlases, unequipped to deal with aircraft flying so high above them, had already fallen, as had the majority of the Rampart mechs, who were defenseless against the A-61. What few Atlases were left were quickly being swarmed by the rachni, who either tore through the cockpit to tear apart the pilot, or had workers work their way into its internal circuitry to destroy it from inside. Either way, the armoured component of the enemy would seen be non-existent.

Everywhere Marcus looked, he saw nothing but inevitable UGC victory. The entire enemy regiment was being annihilated on all flanks, from above and below, close quarters and long-range. With their artillery and air support out of the equation, Marcus had no doubt they would triumph this day.

Killing six more assault troopers and pulling out his shotgun to kill a charging phantom, he spun to face Jack, who was with her students and rapidly overcoming their side of the enemy formation, slamming them with all sorts of biotic attacks. He smiled at the display, and he hit the comms, wanting to get her attention, "Jack, have you and your students refocus your support role on Grunt's men. We need to catch these guys in a pincer movement! Don't let reinforcements get anywhere near them!"

Jack spun and nodded to him, grinning all the way, "You fucking got it! Come on you little shits, we're-"

She stumbled as a Cerberus phantom decloaked infront of her, already slicing through the air with her sword. But what Marcus immediately noted about the phantom was the lack of the usual white and gold armor: instead, she wore jet black and white armor, with a black coat. Black hair tied into a ponytail at the back, eyes covered by patches and lips creased into an easily recognizable sneer that Marcus had come to despise and hate with a passion.

Kai. Fucking. Leng.

The assassin's sword descended upon Jack, with the clear intention of decapitating her. She was quick though, stumbling back as the assassin materialized. The sword just missed her head, instead scraping across her exposed cheek. She growled as a neat line was sliced across her face, the slightest bit of blood oozing from it. Pissed off, the biotic lit up in the color of her biotic blue sheen, and waved her arm aside, bringing with it the biggest biotic bitch slap Marcus had ever seen.

Leng just wasn't fast enough, even with his cybernetics. Caught in the backhand, he was thrown aside like a ragdoll, feet leaving the ground as he was tossed several meters to land on the ground far away from the biotic. Jack ignored the stinging pain in her cheek to turn back to Marcus, nodding to him and reaffirming his orders.

But he ignored her. Leng's presence and appearance had stirred up his feelings once again, and he felt his entire body tense up as adrenaline filled him once more. He snarled, ignoring Jack's surprised frown at his animalistic behaviour as he sprinted forward, holstering his shotgun as he put all his effort into closing the distance with the assassin.

Leng was just getting to his feet, shaking his head of dizziness, turning around when Marcus speed tackled him to the ground. The assassin landed back on the ground with a grunt, Marcus' legs wrapped around his waist, pinning him. Filled with unchained rage, he wrapped his hands around the assassin's throat, holding them down and beginning to squeeze the life out of him.

He barely got more than a few seconds before Leng, with a growl that sounded more like a gasp, punched Marcus in the face. His grip loosened, Leng punched him again, causing him to let go completely. Still pinned, the assassin reached out and grabbed his ninjato, swinging down upon Marcus' head...

...only for the N7 to roll to the right, releasing his dominate posture to escape the assassin's kill blow. Coming to his feet, he descended upon the assassin as he got to his feet, delivering a swift uppercut to the chest. The assassin blocked it before elbowing him in the helmet, causing his visor to crack from the impact. Unable to see, Marcus stumbled back and removed his helmet, magnetically pinning it to his side. He rose his hands, ready to protect himself from Leng's inevitable frenzy of swings.

But they didn't come.

Looking directly at the assassin, he saw that he wasn't even in an attack posture: his sword hung lazily to his side, Leng grinning wickedly at him with unsuppressed mirth, "Shepard, we meet again. Oh, how I've looked forward to this."

He growled angrily back at the assassin, the battle raging around them, gunfire spitting in all directions, unfazing them as they focused solely on each other, the assassin walking circles around him, while the human spectre focused his attention entirely on him, countering his aimlessly walking by turning to face him, "Wherever Cerberus is, you follow. I should have known it would come to this. You're going to die, assassin."

The Cerberus lapdog just laughed, turning away from him while spinning his sword in his hand fancifully, impressed by his own antics, "Here? I think not. I would have thought you would had picked out a more suitable location than this to battle me in. What about...Kahje? I know that's where frog boy was born...where all his kind come from. Maybe you can stab me through the chest like I killed him? Tell me, how did he die? I hope it was painful."

He smiled bitterly at that, "Oh, you died in peace, surrounded by his friends."

"A pity," the assassin sighed regretfully, shrugging as he came to a stop near an opening in the battle proper, where no active forces were present, only an area littered with the dead bodies of Cerberus and rachni, "Those who serve you deserve nothing but a painful death. Aliens and filth, sycophants and parasites. And they will all suffer a slow, gruelling end to their pathetic lives. I killed your bitch's aunt's mate, or whatever the fuck those suit-rats call their significant other...and I killed your little frog boy...and what an assassin he was. Couldn't best me, when the time came, could he?"

Marcus snarled, which only caused the assassin to grin even wider, "He was a better assassin than you ever will be. In his words, you were stopped by a terminally ill drell from assassinating your target...said you should be embarassed. And at least Thane died for a cause...you're just a rabid dog. An animal, and one full of nothing but hate. I don't enjoy death, Leng...but I am going to thrive on yours, you fucking pig."

"Well then. All this talk and no play," he suddenly spun to the left, sword slicing up and through the head of a charging rachni soldier, bissecting his face and spinning out of the way quick enough to allow its momentum to carry the rachni's body sliding across the ground, green, acid-like blood, pouring out onto the deck. Grinning at his handiwork, he turned and sprinted away, heading for a nearby building.

Livid and unable to acknowledge anything other than his current bloodlust, Marcus gave chase, unholstering his pistol as he fired off a few shots in the assassin's direction, hoping to slow him down. Leng's kinetic barriers simply shrugged off the attacks, forcing the N7 to increase his pace as he barrelled after him at full sprint.

A few seconds passed as they ran, Marcus watching as Leng disappeared around the corner. Coward. Always running! Face me, you piece of shit! Face me like a fucking man!

Marcus quickly rounded the corner himself, turning in time to see the assassin standing there, seemingly waiting for him. Seeing him, and with that stupid smirk still on his face, he dashed inside the building. Wasting no more time, Marcus ran after him, quickly arriving at the door Leng had rushed through. He arrived quick enough for the door to still open and, having regained enough of his senses to approach with caution, took aim with his pistol and quickly moved inside, feeling the door close behind him afterwards, well timed and green interface blinking back into existence.

Leng was waiting for him. The room he was in was largely empty, completely non-descript aside from the worn, leather couch shoved into the left corner, and the desk tucked away in the right corner, a vidscreen resting ontop of it but caked in dust, as if it was inactive for all this time. Two windows lined the wall, allowing a clear view of the promenade, however tinted. Omega's artificial, filtered light streamed in through them, illuminating the dust particles that had gathered in the air. A flight of stairs was directly infront of him leading up to the second floor, while the only light in the room was in the middle of the ceiling, glowing just brightly enough that Marcus didn't need night vision or a flashlight to see.

As for the assassin, he waited in the corner opposite the couch and the desk: at the very back. His back was towards the wall, his attention all focused entirely on Marcus. His sword was, to his surprise, sheathed on his back, the assassin's hands hanging limply at his side as he stared Marcus down.

The N7 moved into the building proper, his pistol aimed directly over Leng's head. The movement pretty much prompted Leng to draw his sword, or at least somekind of weapon, but the assassin just stood there, silent and staring back at him.

All with that damn smile.

"What the fuck are you so happy about?" the N7 demanded, hand on the grip of his weapon tightening, "I knew you were eager to kill me, but I didn't know you were this euphoric about it."

"Oh...you'll see," the assassin stated. Moments later, the door audibly opened behind them again, Marcus' assuming it was his squad following him. Instead, the assassin looked over his shoulder and, still not moving, turned back to Marcus, still grinning, "Here we are. Our guest of honor."

Pistol still trained on Leng with his left hand, he whipped out his omni-tool, primed his omni-bow on his right hand, and spun to face the new threat.

Only to find Randall Ezno staring back at him, weapons and holstered and weapons at his side. He stopped moving at the apex of the room, last whispers of an omni-tool being used disappearing as it deactivated, the haptic interface on the door turned green to red. It was only then that the situation dawned on Marcus as Randall spoke, nowhere near a mirror of Leng's childish grin as he stood there stoically and almost reluctantly, "Captain Shepard, we meet again, although only for the second time...I try not to make a habit of running."

Leng didn't like that comment, "Shut the fuck up and let's get this done, Ezno. He's alone. He's got no help: I made sure of it. Didn't take much of anything to lure him over here."

Marcus reache his right hand to activate his comms, but Randall saw the movement and shook his head, "Don't bother. I have an engineer outside who's actively blocking your communications. You can't call for help, and none of your men know where you are or what you're doing: the chaos of battle can leave much to be discovered."

In acknowledgement of the manhunter's words, he returned his right arm to its original pose, clearing his throat. This was a trap. For once, Leng wasn't running away...he was luring me into the beast's jaw. The smile, the taunting about Thane...they've been here this whole time, setting me up...I'm all alone, with noone to come to my help. Not even Tali knows where I am...

"You know I'm not going to surrender," he stated firmly, turning to glare down at Leng for a second before turning back to Randall, "Don't even ask for it. I won't die quietly either."

Randall nodded, "I know, and I expect no less from the Savior of the Galaxy. But nonetheless, you will die," he reached down and unsheathed his knife, the sound accompanied by a similar one from Leng's side of the room, "There's two of us, one of you. Equal amounts of skill and cybernetics, but with two against one. I'm sorry captain, but you will not be walking away from this."

"No, I won't," Marcus stated mournfully, coming to accept his plight. But I will take both of you with me, "But if I leave this room as a corpse, so will the both of you. Leng, and you Ezno. And even if I don't kill you...you can be damn well sure my wife will chase you to the ends of the galaxy just to put a bullet in your heads. Either way, you're both fucking dead."

"Don't worry, she's next," Leng snapped, "Now, Randall!"

Marcus didn't wait for them to move. Without turning to look at Leng, he pulled the trigger on his pistol, simultaneously firing off a bolt from his omni-bow. He then turned and rushed towards the stumbled Randall, hoping his three pistol shots will have kept Leng busy enough for him to deal with Randall, get behind him, and then face them on equal footing.

He encountered no such luck.

Randall, while taken aback by the blast, was quick to recover. Standing up, he strafed to the side, out of the way of Marcus' charge. The N7 ceased his momentum and turned, trying to pistol whip the manhunter to no avail. Randall blocked the strike, before using his other hand to punch Marcus in the fist. Pain flaring up his hand, he reflexively let go of the pistol, hearing it clatter to the floor. Marcus summoned his biotics in an attempt to fight him off, only for Randall to raise his other hand, and press something on his omni-tool. Marcus knew what was coming, managing to dart back from Randall as agony overcame his mind, the splitting headache making it feel like his skull would burst. The biotic inhibitor did its job just like on Rannoch, and he soon found himself unable to use the powers that had become the signature ability of a vanguard.

Blinded by pain, Marcus didn't recover soon enough. He grunted as he was struck in the face by Randall, followed by a kick to the chest by a black armoured leg belonging to Leng. He blocked a second kick, turning to face Leng, only for Randall to knee him in the nose. He flew back, slamming into the wall, before collapsing to one knee, helmet losing its magnetic grip on his armor and collapsing to the floor with a clang, rolling away.

His nose broken and migraine overcoming his senses, Marcus raised his omni-bow defensively, looking up to aim so that Randall and Leng couldn't take advantage of his current state. He strongly considered priming one of his grenades and going kamikaze, but he wanted to put up more of a fight first. He could unholster his rifle or shotgun, but he wouldn't be able to do it quick enough without them taking away that too. Out of options, and surrounded by enemies, he found himself looking at the end.

I'm sorry Tali.

Cracking his neck and fists, Randall looked down at him sorrowfully, "It didn't have to come to this, captain, but you made it so. In the end, you were nothing but an instrument of Cerberus, one that has outlived its use. Now...we shall finish what I started on Rannoch."

A/N:

Yes, I'm totally leaving it there. Yes, I won't be updating for a bit after this due to a fever, a bunch of assessments and catching up on some video games. Yes, I'm totally an asshole. Yes, I bet it works.

In other news, I hope you enjoyed the chapter despite its ridiculous length, and I have no doubt this ending left you scratching your heads and wondering "does ArchReaperN7 truly value his life?" The short answer is yes. The long answer is "I do, but spicing said life up with some death defying fanfiction chapters is a definite way to get there."

Anyway,

Until next time,

Keelah Re'lai, troopers!