"Damnit Javik! Get these bastards off me!"
Jade crouched behind a kiosk, waiting for her shields to regenerate. The structure rattled under the sustained fire of a turret and several troopers were working their way around its line of fire, trying to get a bead on her. She'd lost track of Javik in the chaos of the battle. Last she'd seen of him, he'd been diving for cover a few kiosks down, the green of his biotics flaring in a barrier as his shields shattered.
Finally, after an eternity of crouching and crawling, Jade saw the transparent blue flash as her combat shields reinitialized. She mouthed ancient benedictions to gods she didn't believe in as the flash coincided with a break in fire from the turret. Faster than thought, she rose and lobbed a grenade at the damn thing, counting on her shields to block return fire from the Cerberus soldiers.
She needn't have worried. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the flash of Javik's particle rifle as he cut down the troopers closing in on her position. The turret disintegrated in a satisfying crump of high explosives and an instant later, silence ruled over the erstwhile battlefield.
"Nice shooting, Tex." Jade pulled her helmet off and swiped a strand of sweat sodden hair from her face. The damn thing was a technological marvel, sensors and cameras allowed her to see and hear better with it on than any human could ever hope to do naturally, but it was hotter than Satan's asshole in uranium britches. She accepted a bottle of water from Javik, rinsed her mouth and spat into a planter.
"How many of those sumbitches you fried this mission?" She asked, sipping the water and downing another aspirin from her field kit. Adrenalin may do wonders for a hangover, but we've been fighting almost constantly for the last hour. Reaction headache's gonna be a bitch if I don't stay on top of it.
"Enough," he answered, sneering. "These indoctrinated simulacra are not worthy of noting their deaths. Like killing trained animals."
Jade snorted and moved to down the rest of her water. She froze, bottle halfway to her lips as she caught a flicker of motion on the edge of her vision. Every nerve shrieked alarm as she dropped the bottle and scrambled for her Mattock. Javik, trusting her instincts implicitly, immediately brought his own weapon to bear.
"You see that?" Jade scanned the wreckage around them, straining her eyes and ears to catch any movement, cursing herself for removing her helmet. Her own heartbeat pounded in her ears, drowning out Javik's response as the stood, back to back, searching the Presidium rubble. A long minute passed before they relaxed marginally. Jade scooped up her helmet and jammed it on her head and Javik checked their route on his omni-tool, both keeping one eye on their surroundings.
"We are close," he said, shutting off the orange glow. "Stay alert. I expect resistance will only increase from this point forward."
Jade nodded and gestured for him to take point. They cleared another two Cerberus nests in the next two blocks. They fought seamlessly, all of their sparring and practice in the cargo bay after hours allowed them to cover each other's weaknesses. They hardly even needed to speak, knowing, almost simultaneously, how their partner would react to a given situation within a fraction of a second.
Haven't fought this well with anyone else since Joe died, Jade thought as she slid around a corner in a low crouch, as Javik took high. Never thought I'd find that again, let alone with a damn alien.
After the second nest Javik collected heat sinks to replenish their dwindling reserves as Jade made sure none of the Cerberus mooks were "playing possum." She fired two rounds into the last centurion's head and turned to join Javik when something caught her eye. This particular soldier was sporting an unusual configuration on his rifle. Jade crouched to scan it with her omni-tool. Cortez had once told her he could use any information he could get on enemy armament to help improve their own stocks, so she kept her eyes open for anything interesting. She only had a fraction of a second to register Javik's shout of alarm before a slender, fast-moving blur tumbled into her view.
Time crawled to a stop as the woman in Cerberus colors flashed a blade through a complicated pattern. Who the fuck brings a knife to a gun fight? Jade scrambled to bring her weapon up, but the enemy had superior position over her kneeling form and knocked the Mattock out of her hands. Then, in a continuation of the movement that was so fluid as to be inhuman, she brought her sword around in a thrust that should have taken Jade in the throat. Instead, it took her in the left shoulder, sliding into the gap between cuirass and spaulder, as she dove after her fallen rifle. The tip of the blade parted the Kevlar weave with a sound like tearing silk. It was designed to stop high-velocity projectiles, not this comparatively slow, edged weapon.
Jade grunted as the Phantom pressed her advantage and slid the sword deeper into Jade's shoulder. She looked up into the expressionless mask of her attacker, a red haze settling over her vision.
"You think a little stab wound's gonna stop me, bitch?" Jade reached up and grasped the blade with her gauntleted right hand, fighting to keep the other woman from twisting the sword and opening the wound further. "Sister, I've been stabbed, shot, choked, electrocuted and drowned more times than I can count. This. Won't. Stop. Me." Her body shook with the combined shock and strain but, gradually, millimeter by millimeter, she began to draw the sword from her body. She couldn't tell if it was the blood loss or not, but Jade thought the Phantom looked shocked for a moment, before redoubling her efforts to pin Jade to the ground like an insect.
Slowly, the Phantom bore Jade back until she was spread out almost supine, legs pinned beneath her. The edge of Jade's vision flickered with black lightning, as she fought a losing battle for her life and consciousness.