Chapter 4

"Any visuals?"

"Negative on our side, this street is dead."

The same exchange occurred for the twentieth time this morning, Pacis barely suppressed the sigh of frustration when Xavier cut the connection to tell them that the other team didn't find anything either. This was useless, they've wasted their whole morning searching for the aforementioned marine squads with no results. The streets were completely empty, if the superficial damage of the buildings and roads weren't visible, the turian would've thought that yesterday was nothing but a dream.

"This is really weird Corporal, when did the Reapers have the time to clean up the streets so thoroughly?" Roberts agreed with his unvoiced thoughts. It was the three of them again, since Bernard decided that they made a very nice team while taking the other two privates with him. Pacis guessed that Xavier decided not to mentioned the little incident in the metro to the Specialist, for the sake of keeping the peace between the few of them. That decision made the turian respect her a bit more.

Xavier didn't turn around as they carefully made their through the rubble, answering the private quietly.

"I don't have the slightest idea Roberts, from what I've heard, the Reapers are capable of much more than we know."

A truer statement hasn't been spoken. Despite having a fair idea to how and why the Reapers took the corpses of the already dead humans, Pacis knew better than to mention anything. If they really knew what was happening to these people, he doubted many of them would have the strength to keep the fight going on.

A sudden sound caused the trio to quickly duck down, their weapons at ready to welcome the uninvited guest. Surprisingly enough, they were greeted the same way. Five soldiers in Alliance armour were aiming their various guns at them, both parties unsure how to act.

Finally, Xavier took the position of a commanding officer.

"Corporal Xavier, indentify yourself soldier."

The familiarity of military courtesy snapped the other group from the stunned silence. The soldier in front of the squad stepped forward, snapping a salute towards the Corporal.

"Lieutenant Lee, I'm glad to see some humans around here." Pacis didn't miss the look the helmeted man sent him. "Our shuttle was shot down before we could make it out, is evac on the way?" He asked the woman.

Curiosity filled the Spectre, he wanted to see how the Corporal was able to handle telling the bad news to an officer of a higher rank. True to his suspicions, Xavier was very hesitant to admit the truth.

"Uhh... I'm sorry Lieutenant, there is no planned evacuation for us. We were able to contact Admiral Anderson and he ordered us to stay inside of the city and find as many stragglers as possible." She finally said in a firm voice. Pacis was surprised, the woman kept startling him.

"You contacted the Admiral? I was under the impression that all long-range communications were down." Lee replied in suspicion, unconsciously taking a more aggressive stance. Mistrust was already running high, only a day after the incident. The turian noted the way his squad mates followed his movements without question, the man commanded the respect that Bernard wasn't exactly able to. Roberts was reaching towards his own rifle, Pacis did his best to stop him without attracting attention.

Xavier realised her mistake and hastily tried to calm the already trigger-happy soldiers.

"It was Spectre Pacis, he uh... his Omni-tool..." It was then that she remembered that the turian didn't exactly share his method of communication. The corporal gestured to him in a slightly desperate tick.

Pacis was inclined to sigh in frustration again, but he stopped himself. Every time one of the humans did something smart for a change, they had to follow up with an action equal in stupidity. He didn't want to see the ratio between their geniuses and slackers.

Stepping forward, fully knowing that their attention (and half-drawn weapons) were directed at him, Pacis let them see that he didn't pose a threat. Yet.

"Lieutenant, as a contact between the Human Alliance and the Turian Hierarchy I was provided a Quantum Entanglement Communicator. I believe that they are the only communicators that still work, there are only a few of them on Earth and the Admiral has one in his current base. His company is outside of the city, and we were ordered to gather forces to aid in the recapturing of Vancouver, since the initial defending forces have been pushed back." He knew that he was really pushing the boundaries of truth there, but there was no better way to appease the angry mob of five.

Lee stared deeply into his eyes, attempting to find folly or deception. It was odd, Pacis was starting to think that it was some sort of a human ritual. For him, such prolonged eye contact with strangers signaled aggression and disrespect, therefore he couldn't help but tense in response. Bad decision.

"Is that so? You turians think that humans can't handle themselves, is that what this is all about?" The man asked him while striding into Pacis' personal space, getting close enough for the turian to rip his helmet off with one swipe. It wasn't easy to resist the urge, but he wasn't able to stop his mouth.

"Just look around Lieutenant, I think that it'll answer your question." He said ruthlessly, close enough to hear the human's growl through his mask.

They were spared from a hand-to-hand combat by Xavier who hurriedly announced that Bernard's team found another squad of three and that he has ordered for them to return to the metro. The whole way there, Lee shot dirty looks at the turian, who could see them despite the fact that he was wearing a helmet. Weren't they supposed to be calm soldiers? He wasn't even that angry at Lee, his bigotry annoyed Pacis, but he dealt with much worse morons before. He was acting completely unprofessional, the Spectre realised, provoking allies into fights was the last thing they needed right now.

Suddenly, Xavier broke into a run, taking out her assault rifle midstride. Pacis didn't even stop for a moment to question her, following her speed while drawing out his Carnifex. He could hear the others follow after a few seconds of hesitation.

When the metro came into view, the reason for the run became apparent. Hordes of husks and the flesh-eating creatures were rushing towards the entrance of the metro, being held off by the fire from Bernard's team, but just barely. Pacis noted absently that it was the same place that he came from yesterday. The only difference this time was that there were eight of them outside.

He opened fire at the hostiles without waiting for the obvious order, mowing down as many of them as he could manage.

Eighty.

Inserting another thermal clip, Pacis moved into the enemy line and climbed up on an abandoned truck, knocking a husk out with a punch. The new position on it gave him the ability to harass the Reaper forces despite being in cover, which drew them out to face the fire of his allies.

The fire fight shouldn't be lasting for that long, Pacis thought with calculating confusion. Somehow, the husks and flesh eaters were much more resilient than the ones that he had faced yesterday. Looking closer, he saw that they were all adorned with the unnatural plating he saw yesterday, it acted like armour. Despite being out of actual cover, the husks were able to withstand a very impressive amount of damage.

Pacis reeled back when he was hit from behind. Turning around, the sight stopped him cold on his feet. It wasn't an ordinary husk that snuck behind of him, none of them was able to reach his height. For a moment, the turian wondered if he was staring through some kind of a wicked mirror. The thing was a turian, of that he was sure, but it was perverted and melded into something so wrong that Pacis couldn't find the right words to describe it. Turian plating was one of the most sacred and respected features in their society, which caused the Spectre feel sick when he saw the unnatural manipulation of the thing's face. There has been many debates about combining organic tissue with synthetics, but now that Pacis could see the bleeding abused flesh of the thing fused to steel coating, he couldn't imagine why anyone would want that.

The creature waited patiently for the turian to look at it, Pacis couldn't decide if it was from pride or accusation. It was then that it aimed a Phaeston assault rifle at him and Pacis reacted in an instinct, slamming the rifle down with a talon and shooting at the creature with his Carnifex. Surprisingly, it withstood much more fire than he expected. A light shimmering informed the turian of the shields that it possessed, since when have the Reapers started equipping their ground troops with shields?

Once the creature was dead, Pacis turned around to face the ongoing battle. While he was distracted, the humans were able to clear out most of the remaining husks. Something caught his eye, causing the turian to look towards where they came from. He couldn't pinpoint an exact number, but there was another hostile force heading towards the unsuspecting humans, composed out of more of those turian abominations, a few Collectors and something huge that Pacis didn't recognize.

Grabbing the Phaeston from the ground, the turian aimed towards the advancing group with a shout into his radio, "More hostiles incoming, get into the building."

Despite his suppressing fire, the humans only had enough time to change the direction of their cover before the beast rushed into their ranks. It had a turian head. Pacis cursed before rushing towards it, the rifle in his hand vibrating from the amount of rounds he was putting into this creature.

At long last, the huge monster noticed that it was being hit from behind. Lumbering clumsily around, it turned to face him with a huge roar. The turian just had enough time to jump to the side before it slammed into the truck behind of him. Frustrated, the beast covered its face with a gigantic arm against the constant stream of fire from Pacis. A loud shot rang out from the building, hitting the beast straight in the face. It roared in pain and Pacis saw his chance. Rushing towards it, he activated the newest gadget of his Omni-tool, slamming the blade right between the plates on the creature's face. It fell down with a final whine, collapsing in the sudden silence. The remaining hostiles were either mowed down by human fire or ran away at the sight of their advantage's death.

Pacis wasn't able to will himself to move away from the corpse, the torn turian visage stared lifelessly at him, a residue of intelligence showed the pain that it went through during that transformation. He heard someone making their way to him, but he didn't even bother turning around. A gasp followed after a few moments.

"Is that... A turian?" Xavier asked hesitantly, stopping beside the Spectre. He didn't answer, turning away and striding towards the truck where Bernard already made his way to, the human must've seen Pacis' confrontation with the torn turian.

The Specialist was kneeling down, looking at the fallen turian but he turned around when he heard Pacis steps. There was a mixture of horror and pity on his face, but Pacis didn't acknowledge neither of the emotions. His own face was drawn into a tight mask of indifference after taking off his helmet, he needed some fresh air, and yet the air stank of unmentionable abominations that made his stomach turn.

"I guess the Reapers don't wait around for long, if they didn't even give us more of a day to properly fight against them." The human said quietly, averting his eyes from the turian's cold ones.

It was more than that. The Reapers would have more than enough forces to engage two major civilizations and crush both of their impressive armies in moments. And yet, Pacis couldn't bring himself to acknowledge the possibility of his race falling before the threat of the Reapers, they were the best the galaxy could offer. These husks must've been from stragglers and mercenaries that didn't travel in turian space.

"Specialist Bernard?" Lee asked from behind, followed by Xavier and another soldier that Pacis hasn't seen yet. His rank was identical to Xavier's, which made him a corporal as well.

Introductions were made between all of them. Lieutenant Lee and Corporal Manilow lead two of the many squads left behind to cover the evacuation of civilians from the city, but they lost contact with anyone from the remaining military. Of course, they couldn't expect all of these squads to have survived; the attack from moments ago has already claimed another life from Lee's squad and another soldier was injured. Bernard's team found Corporal Manilow and his two privates, they were protecting three families who were in the metro at the moment, making them the first alive non-soldiers in the city that they have found.

Letting the rest of the soldiers into the metro, the five made their way into one of the private offices of the directors. Lee sounded his protest right away.

"Specialist, with all due the respect, I hardly believe that the turian is needed for this."

Silence reigned in the room before Bernard replied, "Spectre Pacis is the one that made it possible to contact Admiral Anderson. I wouldn't be surprised if he has more combat experience than all of us put together. We need to stick together and use all of the assets that we are given, as limited as they are."

Pacis had to like the way he phrased his response, appealing to both sides while still lacing his voice with authority. The Lieutenant didn't look too happy, but he didn't voice any more concerns about that. With their helmets off, Pacis was given the chance to assess their faces, which didn't tell him anything important. Lee was a dark haired man with distinct Asian features, from what he could remember from his studies of human history. Manilow had red hair, he was pale and currently had a bemused expression on his face, looking at the turian with interest. Xavier had light brown hair, but her paleness seemed to be unnatural, accentuated by a nervous moving of her eyes around the room.

Bernard was the one to open the makeshift meeting, standing stiffly in the front of the room.

"The metro is going to be a safe place for some time, I am hoping that the Reapers weren't alerted of this place. And even if they were, I don't think that they see us as much of a threat yet. We'll send another team to check the tunnels of the metro, just to see how many people we can fit there. We've already tripled our numbers from yesterday, which means there will be more people protecting the metro."

Manilow interrupted politely from his own position of leaning against the wall, "What's the purpose in staying here? The Alliance needs us on the front lines, fighting the Reapers, not hunting for survivors in the wrecks of the city."

Pacis couldn't resist, "What front lines? Most of the main forces have been pushed out of the city, a frontal attack isn't going to achieve anything."

Lee countered, "It was because of the surprise element. We were ready to face a threat, but these Reapers are using horror tactics to put us off balance. They are going to stop working soon enough, and then the fleet..."

"The fleet was supposed to be defending your Earth. Seeing as the capital ships were able to make it to the surface, I think that it's safe to say that there isn't much of it left to perform a counter attack." Pacis' words had a sobering effect on the room. He didn't know why he was saying all of these things, there was no sense in killing morale.

It was Xavier who finally spoke, "We don't know that for sure, so there's no point in worrying about that. There are troops and lost civilians in the city, and we are the few who can actually find them and offer at least some kind of protection."

Pacis didn't reply, which turned the attention back to the Specialist. He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"We need to hold the hope that everyone is doing their part in this war against the Reapers. For now, our objective is to raise a formidable unit that will be able to aid the Alliance when the time is right." He ensued orders to each of the soldiers in the room, assigning jobs and duties to each of the squads. They needed to bring this metro into a defendable and livable condition, while searching for supplies and survivors in the surrounding city.

Bernard dismissed them quickly after that, but requested Pacis to stay behind. Catching the looks on the others' faces, he knew that they had a good idea about what was going to happen.

Once the room was empty, Bernard leaned against the wall with a tired sigh, not looking at the turian.

"Pacis, I know very well that I don't have any commanding power over you, despite the fact that you've pretended to take orders from me to appease the others. Therefore, I'm not even going to try to punish or scold you. This is no ordinary operation, we are really hanging on by a thread over here." Pacis didn't acknowledge the truth in his statement, preferring to stare at the Specialist mutely.

"Those new creatures do confirm that the Reapers have already reached turian space, but I can't have it distracting you and risking the lives of the others. As much as I don't like to admit it, Palaven has much more of a fighting chance against the Reapers than Earth has ever had. But that doesn't mean that you are going to compromise our position here. Is that clear?" The question was still delivered with authority, despite what he said before.

The Spectre considered his words, already knowing that the human was right. He didn't have a reason not to suspect that the Reapers would attack his own race at some point. People were going to die, that much was obvious, he needed to learn to accept that.

"Crystal."