Chapter 8 – Let horde mode commence

A teary-eyed Tessia was sat under the desk in a side-office, cradling her knees as she tried to stay as quiet as possible.

She rocked slowly back and forth as a twisted shadow marred the perfectly square light-source coming through the window, before it flickered away.

A banshee was stalking her, and all her mind could conjure were scenes from the last time she had felt this terrified.

.~~~

Tessia was slammed to the ground, her right cheek taking most of the knock as the figure she had been fighting for the last hour restrained her.

The attacker was another asari, closer to purple in skin-tone, white flecks on her cheeks and forehead, accompanied by a serious glare.

Tessia could feel a hand grasping the back of her neck, forcing her face down against the hard floor. A pang of pain then spread across her shoulder as the attacker pulled her left arm back and placed a knee against her back to stop any struggling.

"Just remember," glowered the attacker, "you asked for this."

Tessia growled in frustration, angry at herself for being so easily pinned; "I'm not finished yet."

Charging pent-up biotic energy around her free hand and her legs, Tessia performed a powerful spinning leg-sweep along the floor, more rotating her own body on the floor than actually attacking. The additional burst of blue energy exploding from her body was enough to break the hold, forcing the attacker to retreat back a few steps as Tessia flipped up onto her feet.

The purple skinned asari nodded at the escape; "Impressive, but this has gone on long enough. It's time I took you down."

"You'll be the one going down Petra," called out Tessia, commencing a flurry of biotic punches and kicks between the two.

Both perfectly blocked and parried for a solid twenty seconds until Petra connected with Tessia's jaw and then her gut, causing her to stumble backwards and scream in frustration.

The purple asari smirked, realising her prey was tiring herself out, but then gasped in shock as she watched Tessia quickly form a sphere of intense biotic energy between her hands.

With a loud roar, Tessia pushed her palms forward and fired the blast out towards Petra, her eyes wincing shut in exhaustion.

A second later, opening her eyes, Tessia continued to watch the trail of her attack blaze forward but could no longer see her target.

Movement caused her to look down in surprise as a glowing Petra glided on her knees under the warp blast and was already advancing. Using her biotics and the momentum, Petra was half back on her feet and suddenly rose forward as if flying.

There was no time to react before Petra's right knee connected with Tessia's chin, causing her to be flung backwards, landing on her back with a thud.

Before Tessia could even finish her groan of dizziness and pain, Petra straddled her body, trapping her arms against her own waist.

"Dammit!" cried Tessia, unable to move.

"You're mine," said Petra, placing her fingers firmly on either side of Tessia's head.

Petra flung her head down as if initiating a final head-butt, but the attack suddenly stopped as their lips met.

What followed was a long, firm, and passionate kiss before Petra sat up, allowing Tessia to free her arms; "I win."

Tessia smiled up at her sparing partner; "I'll get you next time."

"I'm sure you will."

Tessia pulled Petra back down to continue the kiss.

.~~~

The banshee wailed loudly, just metres outside the office that Tessia was holed-up in.

Her body began to tremble even more, her head rapidly shaking left and right, but her lips sealed tight.

.~~~

Tessia and Petra, dressed in matching dark blue and orange combat armour, pressed their backs up against the cold wall under the night sky.

"There's nothing here," sighed Petra, "this is going to take all night."

"Don't change the subject," pouted Tessia, "the only thing you've ever told me about your past before we met was just some vague story about a fight with a krogan on an exploding space station."

"This isn't the time Tessi."

"When will it be time? You talk about settling down with me but you never open up. We're on a mission right now fighting reapers. Reapers! Nightmares of legend! This war could mark our final days and I… I've never been so afraid."

Petra's heart sank as she saw the fear in her lover's eyes; "Oh sweetie… I… I know I've never opened up and you know it's nothing to do with what others will think, but… I still need more time."

"It's been seven months… please…"

Petra took a deep breath and placed a hand to her own chest; "Alright, after this mission, we'll get back, break open some wine and I'll tell you everything. All you need to know right now is… I love you."

.~~~

The office desk that Tessia was hiding under was flung into the ceiling by a biotic explosion, causing the asari to roll along the ground and scramble to her feet.

Barely two steps later, the banshee teleported directly in front of her, stopping her in her tracks.

With a wave of it's crooked arm, it created a warp field to surround it's victim.

Tessia began to unwillingly float upwards until her line of sight matched the creature's, her fearful eyes gazing into the darkness before her.

.~~~

Tessia's first encounter with a banshee was the most horrific encounter she would ever have.

"Petra…" whimpered Tessia to the disfigured monster in front of her, "no, please…"

The banshee wailed loudly at it's prey, it's biotic energy flaring up.

Tessia raised her gun, tears streaming down her cheeks; "Please don't make me kill you!"

.~~~

Tessia hung helplessly, tears now blurring her vision; "I…"

Her line of sight trailed down as the banshee pulled back it's right arm, flexing it's sharp skeletal fingers, poised to skewer the living asari straight through the gut.

Tessia's own biotic aura flared up and she cried out, just as the banshee thrust it's arm forward like a spear.

Although it was extremely difficult, Tessia forced her left arm down to grab the banshee's wrist at the last second, it's sharp nails only just breaking through her armour.

The banshee wailed loudly in the asari's face, but this only spurred her resolve, channelling as much biotic energy as she could into her right fist.

With her own scream echoing out, Tessia quickly raised her hand and released a powerful blast directly into the creature's face.

At the expense of more energy than she should have sensibly been using, Tessia kept the blast going until the monster's head was completely vaporised.

Falling to her knees, Tessia watched as the banshee began to rapidly decompose into black ash that simply vanished like it was never there.

Now completely alone, the asari adapt allowed herself to shed a few more tears over the memory of her lost love.

.***

Several rooms back, another banshee rose from it's knees with a wail, a large burst of biotic energy causing Scott and Teela'Shal to be flung backwards.

Tullius reload his sniper rifle and narrowed his eyes; "It's regenerated it's barrier!"

"We just brought that down," complained the quarian.

Scott jumped up into a stance and continued firing; "Die you saggy, wrinkled, asari granny beast!"

With a wave of the banshee's arm, a chaotic ball of biotic energy was created and slowly travelled towards Teela'Shal who was just getting back up onto her feet.

Holding her hands up in defence, the quarian braced for impact, only to be shocked at seeing Tullius rushing towards her, aiming to push her out of danger.

Just before he reached her however, the warp ball changed direction as if homing in on a new target.

Slamming into Tullius' chest, he gurgled a cry and fell to his knees.

Teela'Shal quickly threw out her sentry turret and opened fire at the banshee to add to Scott's attacks, finally taking down the threat as it gave out one last haunting scream.

"Thank you. Are you alright?" asked Teela'Shal.

Detonating his tech armour to remove the biotic flames, Tullius looked around as his shield recharged; "I'm OK, no problem."

Noticing the drying dark blue blood on the turian's face from an earlier attack made the quarian wonder if this was the truth, but she decided to stay quiet as Scott approached.

"Tulli is well-hard," laughed Scott, "no fazing him."

Tullius reactivated his tech armour; "Please don't call me Tulli. Now, where did the other banshee go?"

Rebecca's voice crackled over the comm link; "Guys… you have to see this."

.***

Moments later, the four of them were stood looking up at a gantry where a lone banshee was quietly stood facing Rebecca's drone.

"I summoned Fido to cover me while I was recharging my shield," explained Rebecca, "and when I was ready, I noticed the banshee was just… staring at it, like, hypnotized."

"Behold," laughed Scott, "the power of hypno-ball!"

"Fascinating," stated Tullius, slowly shaking his head.

Teela'Shal raised a long finger; "You think it affects all banshees, or just this one?"

"We might just be getting lucky here," guessed the other engineer.

Scott followed suit, also raising a finger; "Think you can make Fido flash different colours and play disco music?"

"Tempting," grinned Rebecca, "but I think we should just sneak on by."

"Agreed," said Tullius, picking up the still unconscious Slater with Scott's help, "as this reactor was mostly manned by asari, there's a chance there were many more banshee candidates when this place was taken over."

Tessia's voice suddenly came through on the team communications; "Hey guys, um, sorry I freaked out and ran off there. I'm OK now."

"Tess," smiled Rebecca, "I'm glad to hear you're alright."

"I'll head to your position now, but… then can we get out of here?"

"Of course, Tullius has already signalled Kevin, we just need to get outside."

The sound of gun fire could be heard over Tessia's signal; "I've got hostiles, I'll sort them out, see you soon."

"Hooo-lee crap," said Scott, struggling to turn his head with one of Slater's arms around the back of his neck, "look at the radar, we have an army chasing us."

Tullius held Slater's other arm around his own neck as they both carried him, and awkwardly checked his free arm's omni-tool while continuing to move forward; "Fortunately they're coming from behind, we should keep moving, make contact with Tess, and then evac."

Teela'Shal peered back and stuttered upon seeing multiple doors open in the distance, each revealing various geth and reaper units breaking out towards them; "W-what will we do? There are hundreds of them. Even if you weren't carrying Rob, we'll never outrun them. How are we going to survive this?"

Rebecca dodged a missile and some early shots before looking around the surroundings, making sure the coast was clear ahead; "There's a hold over there. We could all hide in a cargo container and only shoot when something comes near. We'd be trapped but they'd only be able to come at us from one direction. We could funnel them."

Scott shook his head as he and Tullius increased their pace with the unconscious Slater; "No way, I ain't doing no 'box of shame' tactics, we stand, we fight."

Tullius felt a few stray shots register against the back of his armour's shielding; "Unlikely we have enough ammo anyway, best to forge forward. Kevin, do you read? We need immediate extraction, it's doubtful we can get outside."

Kevin's voice came in clearly to the squad; "I hear you. There's roof access for loading close to your position, I can drop down into the reactor from there, it should be big enough. ETA ten minutes."

A map marker appeared on Rebecca's HUD; "That's not too far away! We can do this!"

"Behind us!" yelled Teela'Shal, throwing out her sentry turret over the top of everyone's head.

Rebecca also summoned her drone to distract the faster units that had caught up to them.

As the automated defences attacked the humanoid-husks and geth troopers, the squad continued on for a few minutes towards the extraction point.

"Nice of you to join the party," called Tessia who was already there and just finishing off a geth pyro, the canister on it's back violently exploding.

Scott helped Tullius place Slater down in a seated position behind a control station; "Who knew an N7 Destroyer would be so heavy, ouuh, my back."

A shot whizzed between their heads and they instantly split in opposite directions to find cover.

"We've got a solid wall behind us," stated Tullius, noting the circle on his omni-tool radar that estimated the extract zone, "we're going to have to bunker down and hold the line. Scott, close-range, the rest of you mid, I'll take long-range. We'll adapt if required."

"At the Annex, they got this platinum difficulty level where a mix of enemies come at you in huge waves," explained Scott as he finished off a marauder with rapid well-aimed shots from his M-8 Avenger, "this is feeling a lot like that."

Tessia grinned as she slammed a geth trooper into a cannibal from a distance with her biotics; "Is that another high score challenge I hear?"

Scott switched to his shotgun, blew the head off of a husk that was rushing him, and then called back over; "Don't think I'll be able to keep count with this lot. Besides, we're all knackered and overwhelmed, probably safer to concentrate on surviving."

Rebecca clenched her fist before flicking out all of her fingers to quickly cause an overload burst in a geth hunter's shield; "Did Scott just say something sensible? That's suspicious. Are you indoctrinated?"

"One does not simply disrespect platinum mode," replied Scott, throwing a grenade out.

Kevin's voice came over the comms; "ETA five minutes."

Explosions caused the two engineers in the squad to duck down behind cover.

Seeing them pinned, Tullius followed the direction of the attacks and spotted a line of geth rocket troopers and reaper ravagers at a distance. He began work on sniping them as they continued to bombard the extraction zone, slowly allowing his team to continue their defence.

The dog-like growling of Rebecca's drone indicated that a cloaked geth hunter was in the vicinity as it floated over towards Scott and sent a shock at what seemed like mid-air.

The hunter appeared and spasmed for a few seconds before Scott de-cloaked himself just behind it, firing his shotgun at point blank range to great effect.

Teela'Shal launched a cryo-blast cartridge that impacted and splashed out across a few husks before she threw out her sentry turret to pour a stream of flame at the frozen targets.

Kevin's concerned voice could be heard again; "Slight delay peeps, I'm currently dodging the pulse blasts from a freaking Colossus out here! When did you attract the attention of a geth heavy walker?!"

"We're so famous," moaned Scott.

"Gonna try and divert it a bit before coming back around, hold on."

"Hold on he says."

Tullius began to pick off several geth bombers that were hovering down from the ceiling pipework, stopping them from flushing the team out with aerial bombs.

Tessia shook off what felt like dehydration, fully aware that she had been overusing her powers but also concerned about her thermal clip reserves. She began to use stasis bubbles to freeze as many targets as possible before then delivering precision headshots with her Carnifex. This technique gave everyone a little more breathing space, and limited wasting any shots, but was still exhausting.

"Gah!" cried out Scott, firing his shotgun in retaliation.

Rebecca looked over to see him crouched down waiting for his shield to recharge, his armour looking severally damaged; "You OK?!"

"Yeah, something sniped me while something else snuck up on me, I got it though. Don't worry about me, game on."

Everyone's comms beeped as Kevin called in again; "I'm just a minute away, just… what? No way! The hanger door won't respond!"

"What?!" asked a frustrated Tullius, sniping a cloaked target.

"Don't get your mandibles in a knot, it's not my fault, reapers must have reprogrammed it… hang in there I'm gonna try something."

"This just gets better," laughed Scott as he punched a husk away and blasted it with his shotgun.

"I'm out!" cried Teela'Shal, dropping her now useless SMG and focusing on her tech powers.

A loud screeching wail echoed throughout the chamber causing all five team members to call out; "Banshee!"

"Oh my," whimpered Rebecca as she fired her pistol at more advancing geth, "I can see three of them teleporting towards us. I really hope-"

She was cut off as, what she could only assume was a runaway train, slammed into her and flung her across the room.

Everything was black for a second but the engineer fought to stay conscious, the great pain she was feeling now helped her with that but it was hard to concentrate.

"A brute just hit Becky" called out Teela'Shal to the others.

"Is she OK? How the hell did THAT sneak up on us?" yelled Scott.

Rebecca strained her arm to summon Fido in guard mode via her omni-tool as she tried to make sense of the world around her.

Her HUD flickered, but thankfully didn't completely disappear on her. The readings showed that her shield was depleted and didn't seem to be recharging, but at least the red dots surrounding her on the radar had now vanished, surely due to her teammates.

The pain down her entire left side faded a noticeable amount, she guessed either a medi-gel system kicked in, or that her body was beyond severely damaged.

A quick wiggle of her toes and fingers allowed her to resume her normal breathing.

"We got the bastard Bex!" called Scott's voice as he stood on top of the blue-flame-engulfed brute corpse, firing one last round into the back of it's head.

"Come on, you're alright" said a voice, "I'll help you up."

Rebecca tried to ignore the lingering pain as she was helped to her feet, trying to focus on the face of her aid.

When she saw who it was, she yelled in panic; "Scott!"

Scott was already running over, switching out his depleted shotgun and now aiming his rifle at Slater's head as he stood next to Rebecca; "You touch her and I will end you."

Tullius was some distance away but was aware of the situation. The moment there was a safe gap in the horde rushing the extraction zone, he aimed his sniper-sights on Slater's head.

Slater slowly let go of Rebecca's arm and started to raise his hands; "It's OK, I wasn't going-"

"Get away from her right now," ordered Scott, gripping his rifle tighter, shaking it slightly towards him, "I'm not joking."

"Behind you!" warned Slater.

Scott felt more angry than insulted; "You think I'm stupid? I'm not going to-"

"Behind you!" repeated Rebecca raising her pistol.

Without even looking, Scott dived to the ground and into a roll before spinning around onto one knee; "Déjà vu."

A banshee that had been a few metres behind Scott suddenly appeared in his previous position, swinging it's arm out too late to catch the human.

Rebecca released the trigger on her charged arc pistol and followed up an overload, staggering the banshee. The almost completely synchronized rifle fire from Scott, headshot from Tullius, and barrage of hawk missiles from Slater, finished the hideous creature off in record time.

After it's final death scream during it's disintegration, Scott turned with his rifle raised again at Slater, slightly less tense as he noticed Rebecca had generated Fido in guard mode nearby; "Still not trusting you."

The missile launcher compartment on Slater's shoulder closed and his head lowered; "I don't blame you..."

Scott slowly stood up and began to lower his rifle, he was about say something but was puzzled as to why Rebecca was running towards him, screaming his name in fear.

'Get down? Is she saying…'

An instant later he felt the impact against his back, sending him flying forward off his feet.

A second large plasma bolt seared through the air, clipping Slater's shoulder and sending him spinning against the wall nearby.

Scott hit the ground hard as the third bolt narrowly missed Rebecca.

The engineer yelped as she looked across to what just disabled if not killed two of her squad.

The geth prime slowly stomped forward, it's targeting system now locking onto Teela'Shal who could only run and dive for cover as other geth units started to flank her position.

"No…"

Rebecca's gaze then scanned for Tullius, finding him holding his own gut with one hand, the other using an omni-blade to slash at the mob of husks overwhelming him, his armour covered in his own blue blood.

"Please…"

Tessia was at the other side of the extraction zone, throwing her now empty pistol at the enemy and having to rely on her biotics, a grenade explosion forcing her to the ground with a thud.

"Don't…"

Rebecca was sure Kevin was saying something over comms, but she couldn't focus on his voice. Instead she found herself running and dropping to her knees in front of Scott's still body, shaking his shoulder; "Scott, get up, this isn't funny."

She suddenly gasped as she saw his back, his actual bare back, covered with a large scorch mark that blistered his skin. The prime's attack had gone straight through his shield and had completely destroyed the armour that had been covering his spine.

"Scott!"

It looked awful, but Rebecca tried to calm herself. Although the man was unconscious, her HUD told her that he was still breathing, but only just. Glancing at his back again, she took a small comfort that it wasn't any worse.

There was a deafening explosion above Rebecca's head and she instinctively bent over Scott's body to protect him from the debris.

She tightly closed her eyes, full in the knowledge that without her own shield functioning, she'd likely take a lot of damage if hit by any of the falling scaffolding and concrete.

After seconds of disbelief that she hadn't been clocked over the head yet, she opened her eyes to spot two armoured boots at the other side of Scott.

Slater was stood over them both with his arms out, trying his best to stand still as rubble clattered off his shield and armour.

Rebecca's world was suddenly bathed in a white light, confusing her for a moment before she realised the source belonged to the landing light of the transport shuttle hovering down from the large hole made in the ceiling.

"All board!" called out Kevin's voice.

Now just inches from ground level, the shuttle side door flung open, revealing the pilot stood next to a supply pylon.

"Let's go!" yelled Kevin, throwing out a few grenades towards the reaper forces and then proceeding to wield two assault rifles at the same time.

As Rebecca and Slater started to lift Scott up and take their first steps, Teela'Shal nimbly dashed by and leapt into the hold of the shuttle. Turning around, she threw out her sentry turret and accepted one of the rifles Kevin offered her to provide covering fire.

The moment Scott was placed in the shuttle, Kevin passed his remaining rifle to Slater and dashed back to the cockpit.

As Slater bombarded the field with missiles and gunfire, Rebecca tried her best to aim incinerate cartridges at the enemies chasing Tullius.

The turian was badly injured, hobbling as fast as he could.

"Come on!" warned Kevin over comms to the remaining two, "We can't stay here."

Geth and reaper troops shot at Tullius' back, bringing down his shield with a shattering sound.

"No!" yelled Rebecca, noticing that a marauder was lining up a shot to finish him off.

"Tullius!"

The turian knew that desperate cry. He was likely in great danger, but he didn't have the strength for any evasive manoeuvres. It was taking all his strength just to move forward.

The marauder pulled the trigger just as Tullius entered the effective radius of the supply pylon on-board, instantly regenerating his shield a second before the blast hit him, sending him stumbling into the shuttle.

"Are you alright?!" panicked Rebecca.

"I will be once we're all out of here," replied Tullius, readying his sniper rifle and already beginning to pick off the enemy units blocking Tessia's escape.

The asari left a stasis bubble in her wake to trap most of the units chasing her and with the able squad members covering her run, she leapt into the shuttle as it slowly started to rise.

"We're all in!" cried Rebecca.

"Hold onto your butts," yelled Kevin increasing the lift speed, "it's going to be a bumpy ride."

"Tess," said Tullius moving his head to the side as stray blasts from below hit the side of the shuttle, "can you create a barrier?"

The asari stood before the still open side hatch and held out her hands, creating a biotic barrier in front of herself that spread to cover one side of the shuttle; "I… I think so…"

Tessia gritted her teeth to maintain the shield as the geth prime fired directly at it just before they broke clear of the reactor.

Falling to her knees, Tessia wiped her brow and breathed deeply as the barrier vanished.

The shuttle door started to close as Kevin called back; "Hang tight!"

Rebecca, now helmetless, sat on her knees next to Scott, keeping his body from sliding as the shuttle took a dive at an angle. The rest of the passengers only had a moment to react and steady themselves.

A loud buzzing-like sound rushed by outside.

"What's happening?" asked Teela'Shal.

Kevin replied but he sounded like he concentrating on the task at hand; "Remember that Colossus I was talking about? I showed it some moves and tricked it into blowing a hole in the roof so I could get to you guys. It's now pissed and shooting at us. Heads up again!"

The shuttled lurched to the left with a scraping sound.

"Um, that one might have hit us," informed Kevin, "can't tell what the damage is, the damage report system has been damaged. I think we're at a safe distance now though…"

Tullius nodded to Rebecca; "We're clear, bury that place."

Swiping a few commands on her omni-tool, Rebecca brought up the program signified with an angry looking emoji. Without further thought, she ran the routine, causing several chain-reactions within the reactor.

Kevin chuckled to himself as he watched the massive eruption take out the reaper nest; "You guys always make the best explosions."

"Mission complete," sighed Tullius with a wince as Tessia tended to his wounds.

Out of paranoia and without argument, Fido was summoned next to Slater as Teela'Shal helped him take his helmet off.

The man was quiet, placing his head in his hands and closing his eyes tightly.

The quarian couldn't find any words and so turned to her fellow engineer who was currently putting her glasses on; "How's Scott doing?"

Noticing that Rebecca seemed preoccupied, Tessia answered, trying to stop the awkward silence; "Scott will be fine. He's survived worse than this. There was this one time…"

Rebecca took Scott's helmet off to allow him to breath better, and then lightly rubbed medi-gel onto his back, phasing out all the following conversations, her attention fully on the man laid before her.

.~~~

"Yeah," said Scott sat in the Defiant's cafeteria, a sombre look on his face, "love or simple attraction can make things complicated or hurtful on the field, but sometimes, especially with what's happening right now, it can be a comfort and make you stronger."

If only he knew.

Scott raised his gun at Slater as Rebecca's life seemed threatened; "You touch her and I will end you. Get away from her right now!"

Did he feel the same?

Scott was flung forward off his feet like a ragdoll after a blazing pulse blast hit him from behind.

Did he nearly die… again?

.~~~

"You die…" whispered Rebecca, unheard by the squad over the engines and conversations, "and I will be very upset with you."

She looked at his resting face for a while, taking in every little feature, before leaning closer, closing her eyes, and whispering as quietly as she could; "I love you."

"Huh?" murmured Scott, half opening one eye in a daze.

Rebecca's shocked squeak and a thudding sound made the other squad members turn to see what was wrong.

All they saw was a surprised looking engineer resting one hand on Scott's head as if she had just dealt him a karate chop.

The young women realised what she had done and held both hands to her mouth; "Oh-ma-gosh Scott! I'm so sorry!"

Scott was unconscious once more.

.***

[Location: Medical Bay, The Defiant]
[Hours later…]

Scott sat up against two rearranged pillows in the bed that he was rapidly growing bored of, thankful for the company now that his teammates were allowed to visit him.

"I brought you choccies," smiled Rebecca, sat in her mundane clothing on one of the three chairs next to the bed, holding out a flat purple box.

"Yay! Just what I need, thanks," smiled Scott, opening the box and quickly eating a few of the fancy-looking chocolate pieces.

One of the chocolates in the box began to glow with a biotic aura before it floated a little way and into Tessia's open mouth.

"Chocolate thief!" gasped Scott.

The asari chewed quickly, swallowed, and grinned; "You still owe us dinner remember?"

The patient laughed; "As if I'd forget. Well, doc says I'm patched up and can go soon, so maybe tonight?"

"Sounds good," smiled Tessia, clapping her hands together.

Scott looked between the other two team members and raised the box slightly with a hum.

Rebecca shook her head with a smile.

The turian gestured towards Rebecca; "Watkins was thoughtful enough to get me a small treat that would be more agreeable."

"Ah, yeah," remembered Scott, "it's weird that sometimes I completely forget you're a completely different species."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Rebecca looked around the room for a moment, a hand resting on her scarred arm in memory; "Not exactly the same, but this reminds me of the time you came to visit me after the last Omega trip."

Scott finished eating another chocolate; "We do end up in the infirmary quite often… How are the other two doing?"

Tullius answered the question; "Slater is being kept under strict observation, no one can be sure if he is still under the reaper's influence. I'm sure he will be involved in numerous tests. Teela has visited him, but she has been reassigned to a new squad now."

"Wonder if we'll see them again?" pondered Tessia.

The turian glanced at the datapad he had been carrying, displaying command's praise over their efforts but adding their disappointment over the destruction of the reaper device; "Hard to say, the operations are wide-spread across the galaxy… but we may cross paths again, who knows where this war will take us."

.***

In the Widow system, a fleet of reapers slowly approached the Citadel, with the intention of relocating it to the Sol system…

.***

Rebecca was now alone with Scott in the medibay, her thought process lost for a moment, wondering if she should ask if he had heard her confession back on the shuttle.

"Urgh," sighed Scott, "I hate the boring recovery period. This battle is escalating and I need to be back out there kicking reaper ass."

Rebecca nodded, realising again that things were getting tougher in the war against the reapers and that her squad would soon be sent on even more increasingly dangerous missions.

There was a pause, that in Rebecca's mind, felt awkward and drawn out.

Tapping on her omni-tool, the engineer grinned; "This'll cheer you up."

Fido suddenly appeared, floating over Scott's bed.

"Huh?" pondered Scott.

The combat drone began to cycle through various colours from it's standard orange, while rotating to techno-music that began to play.

Scott laughed at the 'disco ball' idea he had suggested back in the reactor; "Yaaaaassssss!"

Rebecca was so busy laughing over Scott's delighted reaction, that she didn't notice his entranced gaze as he admired her cheerful features.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Scott holding out his fist towards her with a smile.

She mirrored this action, bumping her fist into his and Scott voiced a 'boom' sound, flicking his fingers out and pulling his hand away. Rebecca realised a second too late as she copied the 'bro-fist explosion', that such a movement matched one of her still very active omni-tool hand-gesture shortcuts.

An unguided overload caused Fido to vanish, a bedside monitor to explode, and the medibay lights to shut off with a spark.

"Whoa!" they both yelled out in surprise before two doctors and a security team rushed to their location.