Brute Force and Ignorance
The bridge exploded, the shockwave erasing Shepard's shields and flinging him forwards into his comrades, scraping him and bruising him with shrapnel that was flung his way, fortunately failing to do him any serious damage due to the often inconvenient heavy armour that it was regulation to wear.
Wouldn't have been necessary without those damned regulations about chain of command. Thaddaeus thought vindictively, as he scrambled to his feet and scooped up his sniper. He turned to look at the bridge, and found himself staring down the muzzle of a pistol-
A second before the Batarian holding it was flung off of the bridge by a shotgun blast against its armour. Shepard turned to see McCarthy behind him, and nodded his thanks, before sighting down his rifle across the bridge. A small force of privateers were opening fire with assault rifles, but their fire was clearly ineffective, so Shepard ignored it and continued to survey the area. The ground was practically crawling with the enemy, and it was clear that they wouldn't be alone up there for long.
"Casualties?" McCarthy demanded of them.
"A few minor flesh wounds, but we're all combat worthy." The Service Chief reported.
"Good. Corporal, what's our route?"
"Down, but if we go straight back we'll have to fight our way through the entire time." He didn't have to look hard for an alternative. The explosion had ripped a chunk out of the floor they were on, making a quick drop to the next floor down plausible. "Over the edge." He slung his sniper rifle, as it wasn't suitable for close quarters work, and drew his pistol and his carbon stiletto, before leading the way, carefully dropping down a floor but ensuring that his forward momentum couldn't send him plummeting further than he intended. He spun, and found that the room was empty, for now.
"It's clear." He reported, and the rest of the men followed him down, first being Jenkins, who went down a little too hurriedly, and found himself heading over the edge-
Before he was yanked back off of his feet by Shepard, who didn't even bother looking at him before he said into his comm. Unit "Take it slowly, or you'll be dropping more than one floor." The rest of the squad heeded his warning, and within half a minute, they were a floor closer to the ground.
Of course, this didn't solve their predicament. The pirates had been watching from across the bridge, and had doubtless reported their movements; however, due to the haphazard nature of Torfan's architecture, this floor had an external staircase that led down to the ground that would avoid the ambush squads that would inevitably have been deployed behind them. Shepard led the way through the building, paying no heed to the Lieutenant's bellowed explanation to Command of their change in status, from 'apparently undetected' to 'up to our necks in bullets'. He heard gunfire behind him, the chattering of assault rifles, the cracking of pistols, and the boom of the Scotsman's shotgun, but refrained from interfering. From a pragmatic perspective, it was easiest to say that he 'trusted' his comrades to get their job done. To be more precise, however, it would be better to say that there wasn't much he could do about what was happening to the rear without neglecting the vanguard, which would be more likely to result in his death since he was the vanguard.
They made it to the external staircase, and Thaddaeus narrowly managed to avoid having his head blown off by a high velocity sniper round as he cautiously pushed his head through the doorway.
"Ooh, competition." He muttered, deploying his sniper rifle again now that they were out in the open, crouching, then ducking into the open to squeeze off a shot just above where he had seen the muzzle flash. He just heard a brief, agonized yell, and smiled mercilessly. "Or perhaps not. Amateur." He sniffed disdainfully, then hurried down the staircase to the next option for cover.
"Sitrep, Corporal. We're under fire in here."
"Fair number of snipers. They aren't great, but give me a minute or we'll take casualties."
"Make it quick, or we'll take casualties anyway."
Thaddaeus could probably have picked off all of the snipers worth worrying about in about thirty seconds if he didn't have to worry about his damned weapon overheating. As it was, he used the thirty seconds to pick off five of the best, before McCarthy yelled over his mike
"THEY'RE BRINGING UP HEAVY WEAPONS! EVERYBODY OUT! SHEPARD, YOU'D BETTER BE FUCKING READY FOR US!"
Charming. Angel Eyes picked off another batarian with a snapshot, then moved down into the next spot of cover to give room for the squad. There, he found a group of melee specialists that had been moving up to ambush him and his comrades. Shepard had no time to change weapons, or to fire his rifle accurately. He did the only thing he could. He dropped the bloody thing and charged them.
The first one had his shotgun knocked aside so that the shot went awry, then Shepard followed up with a stunning blow to the four-eyed head, before thrusting him back into his comrades, allowing Shepard to close with them, drawing his knife in his right hand as he did so, so that when he reached them, he could feint a jab at one of their eyes, before toppling them off of the staircase. They were still five floors up.
Behind him, his squad rushed out of the building and into what cover there was, before laying down a withering hail of fire that shredded the remaining batarians. Shepard sheathed his blade, then retrieved his sniper, before picking off another pirate at long range.
"You've got some skill when it comes to close quarters." McCarthy grudgingly conceded behind him, from cover. "Why do you bother poncing about with that damned pretentious sniping lark?"
"Because it's more interesting."
The Scotsman grunted sourly in place of a proper retort, causing Shepard to smirk in victory, before leading the Alliance personnel down to the ground, pursued by the privateer heavy weapons team. From the back of the formation, McCarthy demanded a sample of the explosives the marines were carrying, and collected them into a package that he left on the second floor, at Shepard's suggestion. They then completely ignored the projectiles surging around them, and rushed to the bottom before the timers ran out. They made it, and just about got clear, before the bundle went off with an impressive display of fire and a rain of glowing shrapnel. The Scotsman and Angel eyes both spared themselves a brief glance at the aftermath, their insufferable grins almost identical.
"That was almost stylish, coming from you." Thaddaeus commented.
"Piss off, you English ponce." McCarthy responded, but without any real venom in his voice.
The marine formation swept through the firestorm, moving steadily towards the entrance to the bunker system, dealing ruthlessly with all opposition that they faced, storming barricades and charging defensive formations without taking a single fatality. They reached the entrance to the bunkers, and held the position for a second whilst the Scotsman gave Command a brief update, before addressing his men.
"Time to go in and really hurt these four eyed bastards. I'll take point, Shepard, you act as rearguard."
Shepard nodded acknowledgement, then picked off another charging batarian. McCarthy grinned in spite of himself, fired a round off of his shotgun into the hinges of the door that led into the bunker system, and smashed the door in with a violent kick, before leading the way in flanked by two other vanguard troops-
Half a second before the entrance exploded.