Chapter 22: Whiteout

White crystals hung in the air, cut from the walls by stray rounds. Soft thocks accompanied each impact as the quarians exchanged fire with the insectiods.

Rikka saw Nolta go down, struck by some strange golden orb of light that seemed to detonate on impact. The blast was powerful enough to shake a thin layer of ice from the cavern walls and she briefly lost sight of everything as the powdered haze of frozen water covered her visor. Thanks to her thermal tracker, however, Rikka could tell where the heaviest fire was being directed.

Nall gritted her teeth and hefted a fallen marine's assault rifle. Even with a rubber stock, the weapon's kick rattled her jaw. Nall focused her shots at the flashes coming from the far back of the cavern, cutting down two of the unarmored hostiles. There was a brief lull in the fire, and she used that time to scurry over to Nolta's position. He was unconscious, but his vitals were as strong as ever, barring a few minor bruises according to his suit.

The young woman pulled him away from the back of the cave, firing a trio of bursts to cover her clumsy movement. An insectoid scream rewarded her efforts, but her relief was short lived. The rifle she'd been using was now flashing with an 'error' message, and there was no way she'd have time to perform maintenance on the firearm in the middle of a firefight.

Rikka opened her omni-tool, ready to loose an incineration blast on the next thing that came through the opening, then thought better of it. The temperature differential that such an attack would cause could destabilize the cave.

An overload would fry enemy weapons for a short time but was unlikely to cause damage to organic targets. Despite the situation, Rikka chuckled at the thought of using a cryo blast in such an environment, but it honestly was her best option. Her moment of levity proved enough to clear her mind and she refocused on the opening.

The young woman's focus returned not a moment too soon. A trio of the hostile insectoids entered the aperture. The opening was just wide enough that the aliens were cramped shoulder to shoulder, blocking anything else from getting through in either direction. A perfect shot.

Rikka loosed the cryoblast module at the three aliens just as one of them stepped forwards. Icy blue from the cavern's walls tinted the white streaks of flash frozen moisture from the tech attack. Jagged spikes of crystallized water appeared on the aliens' bodies as their shells' dark brown hue lightened to a soft tan color. If the hostiles had any blood, it would be a matter of seconds before the water within it expanded and caused severe internal damage.

Rikka's prediction was verified a second later; the insectoids' skin cracked, spraying black jets of flash-frozen ichor. An instant later, the lead hostile creaked and toppled to the ground, unable to move. Limbs and bits of chitin snapped off with the strange hissing sound of rapidly melting ice.

A stray round from the firefight at the other side of the cave indicated that the battle was going poorly. The young woman swung Nolta's arm over her shoulder and pulled him towards the back of the cave. Her foot bumped against a fallen sniper rifle and she stumbled. It took a moment to decide to bring the weapon along, useless though it would be in close quarters. Nolta would need a weapon too, once he regained consciousness.

Nall swung the sniper up to her shoulder and felt it snap into place. One of the aliens' assault weapons lay on the ground a few feet back. With a huff, she lowered Nolta to the ground, made a quick dash over to the weapon and hefted it to her back.

Nolta alone had weighed more that she was comfortable carrying, but the combined weight of two rifles and her bunkie had her straining after only a few minutes.

When he awoke, Nolta was able to tell that night had already fallen and that he was no longer in the ice cave. A subtle aquamarine glow shone from an icy overhang above him. Perhaps some bioluminescent extremophiles? That would have explained the brightness of the cave. The quarian noticed that his chest felt heavy and that he couldn't feel his left arm. A quick look down revealed that Rikka's left shoulder and arm were draped across his torso and her helmeted head rested on his shoulder.

A weak smile tugged at his features and he rested his hand on hers. He lay there for several minutes before the discomfort to his left shoulder caused him to unconsciously shift. Rikka stirred.

At first she seemed too groggy to take notice of the compromising position she'd ended up in, but the realization dawned on her as Nolta's chest rose, lifting her head. Nall practically jumped into a sitting position a few feet away from him, an action which caused the young soldier to shed any semblance of fatigue from his weary mind.

"Aw come on, Ah'm not that repulseve am I?" the joking tone in his voice helped alleviate Nall's embarrassment a little.

"No, I- I'm sorry," her eyes drifted to the snow dusted stone.

"Thenk nothen' ov et," the fact that he was smiling seemed obvious.

"I… s'pose you'll be reporting that?"

The young man propped himself up on one arm. "Why would Ah do a theng like that?"

Rikka's eyes searched the ground before coming up to meet his. "Then… you… don't mind?"

Nolta answered her question by scooting over to her and draping his arm across her shoulder. "Not en th' slightest." A relieved sigh escaped Rikka's mask. "Though Ah stell can't feel mah arm."

"Oh, Keelah! I'm sorry!" The young woman's hand came up to meet her faceplate.

Lae gave her a gentle squeeze and Nall felt her spine tingle. After a few moments Nolta forced himself to his feet. In the faint light from the ice, he could make out a hole in the snow a few hundred feet downhill, as well as a hastily obscured trail.

"How long was ah out?"

It took a moment for Rikka to respond. "Two, three hours maybe."

"Y' dragged me all th' way up 'ere?"

"Carried. I sealed the cave behind us with a grenade," she held up the two rifles she'd snatched on the way out. "Managed to bring these with. Which do you want?"

Nolta cocked his head to the side. "Ah'll try th' weird 'un," he accepted the firearm cautiously, as though merely touching it would set it off. Immediately, he could sense something buzz in his spine, almost as if the weapon were speaking to him. A faint blue aurora licked across the exterior of his suit and the buzzing intensified.

Nolta's teeth ground together as his implants seemed to rattle in place. Without thinking, he dropped the rifle in the snow and stepped back. No sooner had he put distance between himself and the weapon than the droning stopped. Lae reached back on his belt to check for his pistol. A smooth casing greeted his suit's gloves. "Maybe ah'll jest steck weth m' sidearm."

"What just happened?"

"Ah thenk the rifle enteracted weth m' implants." He holstered his pistol and tested his biotics on the snow, lifting a small sphere of crystallized water. As Rikka watched, the biotic made a motion with his arm as though casting a stone across a pond. A fist sized blue projectile impacted the floating ice and created a small cloud of powderized water.

"Everythen' feels normal- kinda."

Rikka tentatively brushed a hand against the alien rifle's casing. She hadn't had the opportunity or motivation to examine it in any great detail. Most of the weapon's exterior appeared to have been furnished from stone. No strange feelings assailed her as she picked it up.

"Seems fine to me."

They decided to spend the rest of the night sleeping in shifts. Nolta took first shift as he felt he'd done enough sleeping while he'd been knocked out. Shadows of the aliens milled about off in the far distance, distinguishable through the sniper scope only because of the world's strange luminescent quality. He couldn't tell what they were up to, but they were gradually working their way over to his and Rikka's position as the hours wore on.

One of the aliens in particular strayed away from the group and seemed to be nearing the pair at a much greater rate than its compatriots. Nolta decided that he'd have to take a shot within the next few minutes if it didn't alter its course. He gave Rikka a gentle shake on the shoulder. Nall woke with a slight grunt.

"What's goin' on?"

Nolta held a single finger up to his visor, signaling her to remain quiet. She nodded once as he sighted back through the sniper scope. He hadn't trained much with the weapon but at this range it was more of a marksman shot than a snipe. Lae drew a breath and let it out slowly as the tip of his finger tensed over the trigger. The rifle's kick bit into his shoulder and the barrel bucked upward.

He didn't hear the sound at first, probably his audio filters compensating to prevent any amount of hearing loss. The alien's body jerked and a spray of chitin flew from its broad forehead. Nolta watched in relief as the creature fell to the snow.

"C'mon, we hav t' move."

Rikka nodded and pried herself from the snow. Nolta started moving in a low crouch with the sniper rifle slung on his shoulder. The elder quarian's pistol was drawn, ready to fire at a moment's notice. Dark figures still staggered around the open plain off to their left, prompting Nolta to lead back in the direction of the cave. In the back of his mind, Nolta recalled part of his training that warned him to stay out of enemy occupied territory under conditions such as those in which he found himself.

The simple fact that the only known evac point could only be accessed through this area forced him to ignore that facet of training. Following Rikka's trail proved easy enough that Nolta couldn't help but wonder how the aliens hadn't found them yet. Upon reaching the entrance, the question was further compounded. A lone quarian soldier had managed to squeeze through the top of the cave in. A series of blood streaks on his suit told a grim story.

Rikka ran a hand over the multiple punctures in the back of the soldier's suit before powering up her omni tool to copy any dying messages he may have left.

"Ulri'Set vas Andras," She muttered as the devices synced. "Seems he left instructions for Field Marshall Jahg."

Nolta's curiosity got the better of him. "Encrypted?"

Rikka shook her head. "No, he didn't even try." She pressed a sequence of keys on the holographic display and a small screen hummed into existence above her arm.

"Jahg, you bosh'tet! I-" His sentence broke midway for a bloody cough. "You said it'd be a clean trade. The Collectors-" another cough. "Collectors flew in and… swarmed our damn outpost." The man's voice yielded to a hacking cough again and Nolta could tell these had been Ulri's last moments.

"Nolta's nowhere to be seen and the damn bugs're slaughtering…! What in Keelah's name… were you thinking? Should've just… handed the boy over to 'em on his… pilgrimage!"

"Keelah." Rikka felt the blood drain from her face. "You don't think."

Nolta's tone was grim. "Aye, That's exactly what ah thenk."

Author's note: So, finally got back to it. Not sure if I'll close his story arc once they reach FP or Haestrom. Prolly Haestrom 'cuz that's what I'd written originally.