Menae, Palaven, 2186 CE

The shuttle rocked as they neared the LZ, "ETA 10 minutes." the pilot announced.

He looked to his squad, 6 young hopeful recruits, Unit 2033 and another veteran soldier. The recruits looked terrified, he didn't blame them. The veteran, Aela'Xera, looked quite peaceful but he knew her well enough to know she was as scared as the rest of them. His 3 engineers and 0402 were on a second shuttle.

"All right, listen up." He stood and addressed his squad, "The Primarch said the soldiers stationed at the comm. Tower went dark two days ago, he believes they are likely dead, even so he would like us to search for them. However, our main objective is to cover our engineers while they fix the tower. The Turians are running blind with that thing down, we can't fail. Understood?"

He got a collective, "Yes, sir!" and a couple salutes. The plan was for the soldiers to go in first and hit 'em hard, clear a path for the engineers to reach the comm. Tower with 0402 covering their flank. Yesterday 2033 had briefed them on all known data about each Reaper unit, they were ready.

"Just one minute 'til we touch down, Captain." He stood by the door, assault rifle in hand and his squad joined him, guns at the ready.

As soon as the door opened they were immediately under fire from cannibals and marauders. Aela tossed an Arc grenade into the grouped enemies, they twitched with electricity making them easy targets for him and his squad. Once there was a lull in gunfire they jumped from the relative safety of the shuttle onto the war torn Menae.

They cleared the area and called for the other shuttle then slowly made their way forward. Gunning down Reapers and searching for survivors. They had found a few Turian corpses by the time the other team caught up to them. 2033 took point and they continued on, they were still a ways from the comm. Tower.

Almost 20 minutes had gone by with no sign of Reapers when the tower came into view. As they neared it 2033 slowed down, "Enemies incoming." Husks began crawling up the cliff trying to overwhelm them. He heard one of the engineers, Rei, scream. A husk was crawling on her, it appeared to be trying to smash her faceplate. She activated her omni-blade and stabbed it into the creaTures neck, it wailed and fell helplessly to the ground. They needed to get to a more defensible location.

"Move it! Let's get this thing done." He turned and was immediately jumped by a husk, he barely had time to react before its head exploded in a shower of blood and gore and it dropped to the floor. Thank the ancestors the Geth had good aim.

They laid suppressive fire to keep the husks at bay while the engineers ran for the tower. The screams he heard chilled him right to the core, now he understood what Tali was on about. The Banshee was closing in fast. "Uh.. what do we do, Captain?"

"Right Aela, Niya, get its barrier down."

"Can do." Niya replied, activating her omni-tool. Aela simply pulled out a grenade as an answer.

"Rei, I want you weakening its armour." She nodded. "0402, keep an eye on the other enemies, keep them off us."

"Acknowledged."

"The rest of you with me, just keep shooting and stay out of its reach. Let's take this thing down."

Aela immediately threw a grenade at it, but it didn't slow its advance on them. Niya hit it with overload. That got its attention, "Now!" His squad lined up a fair distance away and opened fire, it seemed to consider them as little more than pests.

Niya hit it with another overload and it stopped teleporting. Rei followed it up with a cryoblast from her omni-tool and they opened fire once again. It wailed in pain and sent out a warp field towards Rei, She dodged and sent out an incineration blast, setting the beast alight. In the distance he heard the distinct sound of the Javelin being fired.

Aela threw another grenade, it detonated on impact setting off a fiery explosion. The Banshee screamed and fell to the floor, reaching out for something unknown. His squad took a minute to relax and reload before they moved on.

Once at the tower they all spread out, covering every angle they could to protect the experts. An hour went by where all they saw were basic Reaper ground forces. "I think we go-"

A loud cannon fired on one of the recruits, he barely dodged in time. "Ravager, everybody get into cover!" Everything had been going so well and in the blink of an eye he almost lost someone. The bug-like creature moved further into their base and headed straight for the engineers. They couldn't get behind cover, so he decided to take a risk.

He ran into the open and fired upon it, "Hey, over here!" It slowly turned it's attention to him as he kept firing into its sacks, he managed to dodge the first and second shot but the third got him in the leg, he was knocked back, rifle falling from his hand. The thing crawled toward him but before it could do even more damage his squad managed to take it down.

He breathed deep and chanced looking at his wound. It was bad, suit and flesh torn open. He didn't have time to seal his suit before he heard more gunfire. He slowly crawled towards his rifle, dirt getting into his open wound. Keelah, he hoped his immune system was strong enough to withstand this now. Once he had his rifle back, he propped himself up on a nearby rock and began helping his team with the ground forces. Without being able to move or take cover, he took more fire but what were a few more suit breaches? If he was going to die here, he would die protecting his people.

"It's done!"

"Good, then call for extraction already! The captain went down saving your asses."

"Keelah, what happened?"

"Just call the shuttle, will you?!"

A moment of silence broken only by gun fire passed, "Pilots 5 minutes out. We did it!"

"We haven't won yet, Niya."

"Right, sorry."

He could see the shuttle coming when a roar sounded and the ground shook as the Brute lumbered it's way toward them. "Get to the shuttle, I'll hold it off." He got to his feet as best he could and aimed for its head.

"But-"

"That's an order, now go!"

"O-okay." As his crew made their way way to the shuttle he fired on the Brute to get it's attention. He was as good as dead anyway, he wouldn't let this thing harm the others.

"Over here, you bosh'tet!" He kept firing as it charged straight for him. He closed his eyes and prepared for a hit that never came. It roared and fell, it's giant claw missing him by an inch, a single hole in its skull appeared to be the kill-shot.

0402 came to his side and put his arm around its shoulders. It supported his weight as he limped to the shuttle. "Thank you... for saving me." It nodded.

"Acknowledged." Its voice held a smile that its face couldn't show.

Authors notes: I'm not very good at writing action. Hope this was acceptable at least.