- Chapter 6: Escaping Therum (Part 1) -

A/N: This one as well as the next chapter may be a bit short... but I still feel the need to have them split up

I never really wrote down any sort of action sequence before, so this is quite the experiment.

I also feel like I could be too wordy just as I can be not wordy enough for things like this... I dunno.

Given the fact that Liara is not doing so hot at the moment, she wouldn't logically be paying attention to every minuscule aspect of the battle there...

I just hope my writing can reflect that lol. I dunno. Keep reading if you want. Or don't. Whatever suits you! :)

Thanks again! I'll see how many chapters I can crank out tonight. Maybe another two after this. I dunno.

In a flash, everyone else in the room withdrew their weapons and began to fire towards each other.

As shots rang out from nearly all sides, Liara collapsed on her hands and knees next to the elevator's control panel in the center of the room. She knows she's in no position to fight unless absolutely necessary. She hates that she's not able to offer much help for this fight, but she also knows that she would do more harm than good if she were to try and help with the offensive using the remainder of her stamina instead of protecting herself on the defensive side of things.

She made herself as small as she could on the floor; as it was now too dangerous to move.

She glanced up towards the door, which was still blocked by a barrier curtain, and a geth sniper with red armour plating crouching behind a few crates just shy of the exit.

It didn't matter all that much if they made it out of this fight if they were just going to end up stuck behind another barrier again.

Liara's biotic barrier fluctuated as a sniper shot ricocheted off of it. She ducked further behind the column that housed the elevator's control panel.

Liara blinked hard, drowning out the chaos that surrounded her. She had to do something to help. Anything.

A shotgun blast rang out to the asari's right, a little too close for comfort. One of the geth shock troopers plummets to the ground with a lifeless thud. Its headlight fades to darkness one final time as the life escapes its electronic, bullet ridden body.

"Nice one Wrex!", Tali yelled out from the other side of the dome as she shot out a few more rounds from her pistol.

"LOOK OUT!," shouted the commander before firing off a few well-placed rounds right in the headlight of another geth shock trooper to the right of Liara. The geth beside her looked as though it was about to shoot the distracted scientist, but - luckily - the human shot it down with expert precision and timing.

Wide-eyes, and without time for a proper thank you, Liara brought her attention towards the control panel of the elevator.

"Maybe this will work...", the asari thought, gears turning in her head. If she coouldn't fight then she could focus on getting that last barrier down.

Another shot rang out from the battlemaster. A fury of bullets continued to zip through the room. Liara couldn't tell what was louder: the fight going on or the ruins crashing down around them.

"Fall back!", the commander cried out, "I've got this one."

From the corner of her eye, she saw the commander harness her assault rifle and withdraw her sniper rifle. Loading it up while taking cover behind one of the support towers in the elevator complex, the human raised the scope of the weapon and aimed it right at the geth sniper; unmoved from its position by the exit of the ruins.

She fires the gun. It kicks back with a great deal of force.

Direct hit. The geth sniper collapses to the ground in the distance.

Glad that the sniper wielding geth is out of the way, Liara opens up the control panel of the Prothean elevator. She tries her best not to draw too much attention to herself.

"There must be a way to reset the barrier..." the lightheaded asari thought to herself as she navigated the ancient controls.

Adrenaline pumping, Liara tries a few more combinations that she could think of. She sees the barrier curtain flicker briefly in the distance, only to flicker back on again.

Another ground trembling quake shakes the structure. Liara shields her eyes at the control panel's rogue sparks of electricity.

Error: Malfunction Detected. Restart Required., it read.

More bullets rang past the doctor, as she crouches back towards the ground once more.

"Well... There goes that idea..."

The krogan battlemaster, unbeknownst to Liara, stomped right around the corner from which she was crouched.

Wrex took it as an opportunity to take him by surprise, shooting the battlemaster square in the chest before charging him in a blood rage.

"Oof," the fuming krogan gasped from the impact shot.

Immediately after Wrex took a few steps back from the enemy krogan, Tali sent out a spherical attack drone towards the krogan. It shot relentlessly at the wounded battlemaster.

The krogan shoots down the drone, and it vaporizes into thin air. He defers his attention towards the crouched asari doctor.

Angry, the wounded krogan reloads his shotgun and aims it at Liara.

He lets out a guttural roar, Liara throws up her barrier as strong as she can - knowing very well there's no time to dodge the oncoming attack.

A Shot fires. Bam

Liara opens her eyes cautiously. She is greeted with the sight of the krogan on the ground, blood gushing from the bullet hole in his head. His red, bloodshot eyes rolls to the back of the skull of his limp and lifeless body.

Liara turns her head around to locate the source of the killer blow.

The commander holsters her sniper rifle.