Chapter 8
The male quarian reluctantly lowered his gun, staring at Kevin as if his very existence was impossible. He used the arm that previously supported the assault rifle to support his own weight as he leaned on the crate decorated with jutting gun stocks. He was breathing heavy as well, no doubt a byproduct of the stress he had likely been enduring since they landed. He didn't stand up straight either, indicating to Kevin that he had likely sustained some sort of injury. He then spoke with a familiar modulation and a mild accent in his voice.
"You. . . You aren't geth. If you aren't geth, then why. . . How. . .?" The quarian shook his head. "Nevermind that. Pointless questions. I am Gunnery Chief Tyr'Garloh of the Migrant Fleet Marines."
Kevin released his high-armed stance and took a few steps forward. The quarian no longer appeared to be confused or afraid of what Kevin might be.
"Kevin Folner. I got your message." He took a brief moment to casually point off into the distance towards the smoke. "I take it things aren't going well."
"Considering all that's happened thus far, I'm surprised we're alive as it is. Quite a few individuals have a lot of thanks coming their way, assuming we get out of this mess alive."
Tyr hauled himself on top of the crate and sat down on a corner that lacked armaments facing away from Kevin. Kevin naturally walked around to talk to the quarian face to face. That's when he saw the wound on Tyr's thigh.
"You've been hit?" Kevin asked.
"Yeah," Tyr replied glumly. "Took a shot while fighting the geth down there. Finished off my kinetic barriers and still had enough punch to go through my armor. Missed the bone, though. I've already applied what we had left for medi-gel and my suit's sealed it off to prevent further infection. I can walk, but I'm not capable of dogging frontline combat until it heals. Or the infection blows over. Whichever comes first."
"So why are you the only one up here?" Kevin looked back towards the other end of the valley. He noticed a myriad of guns scattered about between the armory and the end of the valley where it appeared to take a left down a hill. It looked as though those that had trekked downhill might have dropped the fallen armaments during a hasty relocation to the far end.
"The captain sent me up here to keep watch over the camp after I got shot. I figured she just didn't want me down there to watch in helplessness as our crew got slaughtered by geth. It's because I can't maneuver fast enough for the frontlines and she didn't want to commit me to the deathbeds just yet. Anyways, the only thing up here worth protecting is the distress beacon, and even that's gone now."
Tyr turned to look back at the Kellius and the scraps underneath. Kevin looked around Tyr to see just what it was he was referring to and quickly discovered for himself what the quarian was staring at.
"So that's what we landed on. . ." Kevin said under his breath.
"The way I see it," Tyr continued with a quick point towards the smoke, "the battle ends down there. Either we miraculously exhaust the geths numbers, or we get overrun. Even if we did win, we still have extremely limited supplies and no ship. Or rather, we didn't. Extraction? Possible, but difficult."
"Alright," Kevin started. "It's time to evacuate you and your crew. How many are there?" Kevin stepped back and went to lean on one of the many six foot tall blade formations sticking out of the ground.
"Whoa, careful with that," Tyr suddenly blurted out.
"What? You mean this?" Kevin knocked a knuckle against the broad side of the formation he was about to lean on.
"The techs ran some scans on those. They're impossibly dense, and the sharp edges crystallize at near molecular levels. If you lean on that sharp edge, you'll cleave yourself in two." The quarian stood up off of the crate, staggered once and grabbed his rifle. There was a definite urgency in the air, but the need to pass on intel always came first. "They've been both our demise and our savior at the same time."
"How so?" Kevin asked. At this point both he and the quarian slowly started towards the open end of the valley.
"When we crash landed, we hit a couple of them as we skimmed hilltops. We figured they'd snap like trees, but we were wrong. They tore into our hull like it was made of water. The bigger ones cut pieces of the ship off entirely. The biggest remaining piece is the shell at the base of this hill. That's where my shipmates are right now.
"On the flipside, there's a huge amount of smaller ones all over these hills. Going by foot is a danger unto itself. Stepping on one means loss of a foot. It's kept geth ground patrols from finding our campsite here and from finding the path down to the backside of that shell of a ship. Not to mention they can't really drop troops anywhere they want. If they even nick one of those, that's instant death in my book. And to answer your original question, there were a total of thirty-two of us when I was sent up here. Fifteen of those were marines, including myself. The rest. . . Regular civilians and techs."
"So the geth haven't located this area," Kevin summarized. "Good. And I take it there's no way around the ship piece down there?"
"Well, it seemed fortune favored us when it came to this one situation. When the main piece of the ship finally came to rest, it nestled itself right at the base of the only 'safe' path up. The corners crumpled and the ship settled in. It effectively made a perfect blockade and kept the geth from walking right on up. They've been fighting the geth there for almost a day now. Keelah knows they're running out of clips, combat effective bodies and sanity."
At this point they came across a ledge that looked down over the path to where the smoke was coming from. Kevin caught a glimpse of the shell that Tyr was just talking about. What wasn't bored out or destroyed from the landing looked like a classic example of quarian ships – old and discolored. Only now it was smoking in several areas and there were some holes in what was left of the hull where he could still see fires. He looked to the ground and picked up an old sniper rifle from among the guns scattered across the ground.
Kevin used the sniper scope on the rifle to get a better look at the path he would have to traverse in order to reach the other quarians. It wound down right side of the valley and disappeared behind another collection of sharp hills between him and the shell, and which also obscured most of the quarian wreckage from view. As he scanned the path, he caught glimpse of something he was hoping not to see. A geth ground infantry.
"Tyr, you said the geth can't make it to this path right?" Kevin asked, still looking down the scope.
"That's right. Why?" Tyr asked, sounding suspicious.
"Take a look," Kevin said, offering Tyr the sniper rifle.
The quarian marine put his rifle down and took the sniper rifle in his three fingered hands. When he peered into the sniper scope, he scanned the path in a way similar to the way Kevin viewed the hillside. Halfway down, he spotted a geth trooper climbing down the side of one of the adjacent hills and stepping onto the path.
"That bosh'tet!" Tyr shouted. A click was heard as he pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, the rifle's thermal clip had been jammed and a shot could not be fired. He handed the sniper rifle back to Kevin while placing the other hand over the small light at the base of his helmet.
"If the geth know of this path and have found a way to get to it, then it's only a matter of hours, if that, before the geth get in the backside and flank our remaining forces. In short, we're out of time."
"Are you a good shot, Tyr?" Kevin asked.
"I've taken my share of heads off, sure."
Kevin quickly and violently replaced the thermal clip in the sniper rifle and shoved the gun back into Tyr's hands.
"Then cover me."
"What? Where are you going?" Tyr shouted after Kevin.
Kevin bent down and picked up an assault rifle from the ground. This one, like all the other guns he had seen up here at the camp was an older model. It could still take geth down, but it might take a few more shots to do it.
"I'm going to go say hi to your captain."
Tyr sighed and tapped on his omni-tool a few times before radioing to Kevin.
"I'm sending you the encryption to our comms channel so you can monitor what's going on. Don't say anything until you've met with the captain, understand? You're an HVI, a high value individual. If the geth are listening in, we don't want them knowing you've arrived."
"Gotcha," Kevin replied as he started down the winding path while putting a new thermal clip into his rifle. He set up the new comms channel on his suit so that he could hear what was to be heard and moved with as much haste as his legs would allow going downhill. It wasn't long before he was coming up to the solitary geth heading down the path. As he approached the geth soldier from behind, he found that the geth still hadn't noticed his presence. Kevin opted to save his clips in this case and ran right up behind the synthetic enemy. By the time the geth had noticed that someone was approaching from behind, it was too late. A swift blade carved its way into the cables and parts surrounding the 'neck'. Sparks went flying, sounds of failing geth electronics could be heard and the body fell limp and uncontrolled to the ground.
Kevin sheathed his knife and continued on down the path. The sound of military chaos grew louder with each step. Occasionally he would hear the unmistakable sound of a mass accelerator sniper rifle go off a few times, followed by a geth body falling comically to the ground from the hills surrounding the sunken path on which he trekked. Once he followed the path around the hill a bit, the full view of the battleground came into sight.
It seemed he was only one quarter the way down the hill. From here he could see the whole shell, but he couldn't see much inside. Aside from numerous tears and breaks in the hull, the rest was as intact it could be after a groundside impact. On the other side of the shell was an area of nearly flat terrain surrounded in the distance by more hills and craggy mountains. Haphazardly scattered about the flat area was an innumerable amount of shiny specs – geth corpses that had been laid to rest by the quarians holding out inside the ship.
There were also a few much larger corpses spread about the battlefield. They didn't look like the typical colossus or armature class geth he had seen in the past. They actually looked more like small sized geth dropships used to bring infantry to the place of conflict. The geth that were still active used the huge smoking husks for cover while they attempted to reach the quarian ship. This thought was confirmed when a geth dropship matching the configurations of the ones on the ground approached from the far side of the battlefield and dropped about eight fresh geth soldiers behind one of the wrecks with a quick set of distant thuds. Both sides were exchanging quite a bit of fire. This was obvious by the illuminated trailing lines of fired projectiles No one, synthetic or organic, would survive for very long down there in that no man's land. Suddenly, a female quarian voice sounded over the encrypted channel.
"Captain, we have sniper fire coming from the hills behind us!"
"It's probably Garloh. Guess he couldn't keep to his orders after all," a male quarian said.
"Garloh, what in Keelahs name are you doing?" Another female. Kevin recognized this voice from the distress signal. It was the captain.
"Just thought I'd help, ma'am," Tyr said rather nonchalantly.
"I told you to watch the camp, not shoot geth down here! Get back to your post!"
"With all due respect, ma'am" Tyr countered, "This is more important than watching an empty camp."
There was no argument from the captain this time. Apparently she got the hint that something was up.
There were a few more shots from Tyr and another synthetic body fell down the subtle walls of the path to Kevin's left. To his right, however, he heard steps from above. He looked up to see a geth coming down at him, pulling out an unfolding pulse gun. Kevin stopped and braced the stock of his rifle against his body before unleashing a barrage of mass effect propelled pellets at his attacker. By the time the geth had his rifle out and ready to fire, several shots had already bounced off its kinetic barriers. It had enough time to make one unaimed shot at Kevin before its barriers failed and allowed a few more shots to fatally shower the unprotected synthetic underneath. The one shot the geth let loose fell harmless at Kevin's feet.
Kevin didn't even wait for the geth to come crashing down to the path before he was already moving on. The geth knew now that a new player was on the field, and Kevin couldn't waste any more time. He kept his eyes up now, anticipating more geth troops to come over the hills. Most were taken out by Tyr, and the occasional one to make to the path met a quick demise at the hands of Kevin. Finally, after a trek that was longer than the deceitful path visually told, the rear entrance to the shell came into view.
The door didn't look so much like a door as much as it looked like it was a rounded rectangle cut out of the hull and then placed back on with a handle and hinges. Kevin pressed his back against the hull next to the door and waited a moment to catch his breath. He pounded on the door three times, hoping that someone would notice and come to open. Instead, he heard footsteps above him. He flicked his head skyward to see an armored female quarian standing in a tear in the hull above him, assault rifle poised to take him out. In place of the shots, however, he heard a female quarian over the comms channel.
"It's. . . It's a human?"
"Let him in, now!" Shouted the captain.
The quarian disappeared from the hole in the hull and within the minute, the door next to him let out a few clanks before slowly opening with a deep groan. Kevin immediately ducked inside and the door was shut and locked behind him. Now that he was inside, the atmosphere of the battle around him changed rather dramatically. Instead of just watching two sides battle it out from above, now he was witnessing a bunker holding out against an oncoming force for their very lives. Kevin had to wait a moment for his eyes to adjust as it was very dim inside despite the blinding nature of the sun against the white washed terrain. Expectedly, the noise inside was louder than it was outside. The sound of all manner of weapons firing echoed endlessly throughout the ship, and the sound of incoming shots hitting and ricocheting off of walls and metal only made it worse. Every now and again a hallway would flash as it was illuminated by sparks resulting from the aforementioned incoming fire.
The quarian who locked up the door – who was holding an assault rifle in one hand and had a huge, heavily modified rocket launcher strapped across her back – approached Kevin with the obvious intent on asking him questions. Kevin stopped that before it could begin by bringing an index finger up in front of the quarian and asking about what he needed to find. He had to shout in order for his voice to be heard above the ambient conflict.
"Who's in charge here?" he asked.
The quarian surprisingly didn't hesitate to give him an answer, albeit in the same loud manner.
"You'll want to see Captain Kortel. She's at the front of the shell. You'll need to take this hallway to the end and take a left followed by a right into a large room. You should see her on a level up overlooking the flats."
Kevin nodded in thanks and immediately turned to follow the directions given to him. Before he could get anywhere, though, his arm was grabbed to get his attention and he stopped. He looked to the quarian to see what else she had to say, knowing time was short.
"Keep your head down, human! We've already lost too many to the incoming stray fire!"
"Dually noted, thanks," Kevin replied as the girl ran off to return to her post.
Kevin once again turned to head down the hallway, but this time he moved a bit slower and a bit lower to the ground. As he moved, he observed his surroundings. He had never been in a quarian ship before, destroyed or otherwise. If there was one word to describe it so far it was the word cramped. It wasn't just the fact that the entire place was a complete mess from the crash, but rather the fact that the hallways and rooms were small to begin with. He also noted that the ship must have come to rest upside down, as the doors to the adjacent rooms and hallways connected flush to the ceiling rather than the floor. Most of the rooms he had passed so far were either empty or a chaotic mess from the crash, and all seemed to lack doors of any kind. Occasionally he would pass by a room that looked as though it had been repurposed from something with function to a stockpile for materials. Whether it was useful items or refuse he couldn't tell.
As he neared the end of the hallway, the intensity of the battle grew. He could hear more incoming shots, see more flashes and the ambient noise grew in volume. The moment he took the left at the end of the hallway, the reality of where he was changed once again. He went from being behind the frontlines to being on the frontlines. The room immediately to the left of the open doorway was larger than the others, and had several quarians occupying it – all of which were in some manner of makeshift bedding. Kevin deduced that this is where the quarians injured beyond combat effectiveness went. He was almost surprised to find that there were no doctors or medical supplies anywhere in the room. They must have exhausted their surviving stock. With that in mind, Kevin changed his perception of the room. It wasn't a forward med-bay. No. It was a room full of deathbeds.
Some of the quarians looked over at him. They didn't make much for noise that could be heard over the sound of gunfire, and Kevin couldn't even tell if they were glad to see him or not. Their masks prevented almost any emotional read. After a brief moment of looking at the out of place human in the room, the quarians, one by one, laid their heads back down. Just by looking at them Kevin could see their grave injuries. He knew that antibiotics wouldn't stop those infections, and he knew others thought the same way. He spent no more time lingering in this grim room. He had even less time than he initially thought.
There was one more room on his left before the first right that the girl mentioned. For some reason inexplicable even to himself, Kevin looked inside the hardly lit room whose door was flush on both ceiling and floor. This scene was even more grizzly than the last. Quarian bodies, suit and all, laid heaped and scattered around the room. Some had obvious fatal injuries, some were missing limbs, and some were just a meaty, bloody mess. The floor was coated in a film of congealing quarian blood which had begun to seep out into the hall he was in. From the look of the swipe marks on the floor just outside the doorless entryway, the blood had already been swept back into the room on multiple occasions. That was most likely to prevent the floor in the hall from becoming slick during the firefight. It was the frontline morgue, and there were more bodies in here than could be accounted for in Tyr's count of how many were alive when he left.
Moving on, the doorway to the room on the right he was instructed to go to was just ahead. As soon as he turned inside, he could tell this was where all the action was taking place. Holes dotted the outer wall and the ceiling was missing for about three or four decks. There was enough floor remaining on each deck – perhaps three quarters of a meter – along the outside walls so that one could carefully move along the catwalk-style walkway and engage the enemy through the rifts torn into the hull. Each deck was connected on opposite ends of the room via hand-made ramps going from deck to deck. Kevin spotted multiple quarians bunkered down on various decks along the outer wall, firing out at the geth who were no doubt on the approach. One was frantically, yet carefully traveling between them all, desperately trying to ration out thermal clips and food to those tasked with holding the line. Stray fire was coming in from more than one direction, causing sparks to fly just about anywhere Kevin looked. There was a lot of shouting not being done over the comms channel, and though it was incoherent to Kevin's ears above the gunfire, he knew it was military related information.
Before he even had a chance to fully scope out the environment, he spotted a spray of blood come from one of the two quarians on the next deck up. The one that was shot staggered backwards and fell down to the floor Kevin was on. Though the difference in height between the two decks was not substantial, the quarian fell directly on his or her head with a sickening crunch. If he wasn't dead before, he was surely dead now. Kevin instantly feared that his chance to talk with the captain had vanished in that instant. Not more than a few seconds later, he heard the announcement of the quarian's death over the comms channel.
"Haathah is down! Haathah is down!"
Simply looking at the quarians to determine their rank was impossible from here. They all looked like armored quarians with various colored cloths wrapped tightly around their environmental suits. Fortunately, there was now only one quarian on the next deck up firing out at the geth, so finding the captain wouldn't be an issue. Getting to her without taking a shot was a different issue entirely. The ramp to the second deck, which was made of piled up debris, was on the far side of the large room and the first floor was a veritable no man's land similar to the flats due to all the incoming fire. To Kevin's relief, however, there was a groove in the floor normally used for lighting which was barely wide enough for one person to duck into that ran from his side of the room to the far side. While it was a cramped walk, it was far safer than simply trying to cross the bottom floor on foot. If he didn't have a helmet on, he would swear that his hair was getting singed off from all the close-call shots that passed right over his head as he made his way through the convenient trench.
Now that he was well into the bunker situation, the feeling of a desperate military hold out set in a bit more firmly. It reminded him of some bad times his squad fell into back in the year he was in the Alliance military, and it brought a lot of boot camp-learned discipline to the surface. He picked up his pace just a bit and made more calculated steps as he climbed the ramp and began to make his way across the catwalk to where the perceived quarian captain was gunning from. Unfortunately, she was using a thick portion of hull between two open tears as cover, and Kevin had to cross one to get to her. The hole was low enough to the catwalk in some areas that he had to crawl in order to avoid exposing himself, and it was a good thing he did. As he crawled, a small number of shots nicked the edge of the hole above him, causing a few sparks to roll down over his suit and onto the floor he crawled on. Soon enough, though, he was across and pressing his back against the cover much in the same way as the quarian next to him did between firing sessions. He did his best to not knock over a short stack of unused thermal clips that sat between him and the captain.
"Captain Kortel, I presume?" Kevin asked in opening.
The quarian captain ceased her firing, sat back against the wall and took a quick breather before turning her head to greet the newcomer.
"So you're the HVI Garloh was covering? Glad to see you made it here without getting shot."
Their conversation was briefly interrupted by a geth pulse bolt hitting the edge of the open hole where the captain was just previously shooting from, causing them both to suddenly duck out of reflex.
"I have a lot of questions about why you're out here," the captain said, "but we have more important things to worry about. Namely, why are you on my ship?"
"I just heard you could use a ride," Kevin all too calmly replied.
The captain took another moment to lean over and fire another burst of shots, stopping just short of having to eject her thermal clip.
"So you have a ship, then?" she asked, sounding both relieved as mush as surprised. "Where is it?"
"Back at your camp. I have someone inside ready to get us out of here the moment we're aboard."
The quarian paused to make sure she fully understood was she was being told. "Thank Keelah! You've made this captain's day." The quarian captain activated her comms channel and called out to some of the others in the ship.
"Welkas! Rolush!"
"Ma'am?" two males simultaneously replied.
"Double back to the camp and start loading our surviving cargo onto the ship you'll find there."
"There's a ship, ma'am?" one of the two asked, obviously shocked to hear that there was any ship at all.
"Get moving!" the captain ordered. "I don't need you two arguing orders too!"
"Sorry ma'am. On our way."
"Garloh," the captain once again called out, "As you heard, two will be coming up the path to the camp. It is now your job to make sure that path is clear, understand?"
"Understood, ma'am," Tyr replied, as calm as ever.
It was now Kevin's turn to radio in.
"Ralik, this is Kevin. There will be two quarians arriving at the camp shortly. Their job is to load whatever cargo they can onto the ship. Make sure the ramp is down."
"Will do, Kevin," Ralik said. "So they're actually alive down there?"
"Yes," Kevin replied, almost irritated at such a comment. "Some of them, at least. And I'd like to keep it that way."
"What's your name, human?" the captain asked.
"Kevin Folner."
She looked down at the assault rifle Kevin was carrying with him. "Can you shoot that thing, Folner?"
"Military trained, ma'am." Kevin found himself denoting her authority even though she wasn't his captain. Stranger still, it didn't bother him as much as he'd have thought.
"Good, because I just lost two gunners and you're their replacement. Get on a window and start providing covering fire." As soon as she finished giving him orders, she turned to start shooting out of the window again and the intensity of the firefight was back up to where it was before Kevin had arrived.
It had been a long time since Kevin had been given orders and simply expected to follow them. Those years working as a mercenary had dulled his senses to what authority actually was. This, however, was no time to play the rogue soldier. They all had to work together in order to get out of this alive, and he had no intention of disrupting how things went. He shimmied over to the tear he had to crawl under before and started using that as his firing window.
For the first time since he'd arrived, he got a good look at the battlefield as the defenders saw it. Multiple geth approached in the distance, all firing blindly at the structure they perceived as a threat. He could see the blue-tinted tracer bolts from the geth pulse rifles fly by him and hit the hull somewhere on the outside or make it through to the inside. Suddenly he found himself with a lot of questions about these tactics. He knew the geth weren't the most militarily strategic species in the galaxy, but this approach made no sense to him. He didn't have time to ponder this now, though, and he took aim through the sight of his rifle and fired a few burst rounds. At this range, he wasn't likely to place most, even some of his shots on a geth, but he could quickly see what strategy the quarians were using to take the geth out with minimal shots.
They each took turns firing on certain geth out in the open in order to at least nick at the kinetic barriers of each individual geth soldier. As long as they were taking fire, their barrier systems would have no chance to recharge. Eventually each geth would take one or two fatal hits after being constantly shot at from numerous sources. Additionally, the quarians fired in sequence. Some fired while others waited. This helped prolong the use of each thermal clip so that they would have extras if they encountered a moment when they weren't able to stop firing before the clip had to be ejected. Once Kevin picked up on these strategies, he followed suit.
After several more minutes of this style of fighting, the number of attacking geth finally dropped down to zero. He heard one of the quarians yell something about a break in the geth's numbers. Or maybe it was something about being able to take a break. Either way, Kevin took this moment to move back over to the captain so they could talk more. He saw the other quarians moving around as well. The one distributing clips and food was gone now, likely having been one of the two that went back to the ship. The remaining quarians first tasked themselves with gathering clips from the one they called Haathah before moving his body to the morgue that Kevin got a look at earlier. Once that was finished, they moved over to where the food and clips to be distributed were, and divvied up the remains amongst the survivors. One of them called up to the captain and tossed several clips up to her.
"Why have the geth stopped?" Kevin asked the captain.
"One of their recent strategic developments. It's their way of finding out how well armed we still are. Within the next few minutes, you will see a small dropship fly in very close. There are no troops in it at all since its purpose is to see if it will be shot down. If it is, then that means we'll simply shoot down any loaded dropships that get close and they have to continue supplying troops out beyond our range. If not, then I expect a full on close range drop and assault. They'll attempt to breach and take us out from within."
"Why haven't they just bombarded the site? Why waste all these resources?"
"I haven't quite figured that out yet," she admitted. "It's almost as if they are fighting us while we hold something of high value to them, but I can't think for the life of me what that might be. Either way, it's saved our lives so I don't spend too much time trying to figure it out."
Kevin nodded. That might explain the lack of colossus use as well. If they can't drop them in close, then they're simply big targets out in the distance. Even their armaments can't punch the hull of a ship from there.
Suddenly the hum of a dropship was the only thing that could be heard. The quarians all scattered, heading back to their positions and the captain called out to yet another quarian in the ship.
"Merni?"
"In position, ma'am." It sounded like the quarian that greeted Kevin at the door. It would make sense considering the massive armament she had on her back.
Kevin looked outside the closest hole in the hull to see what was going on. Just like the captain said, a geth dropship was flying in closer than the others did. It hardly got the chance to hover in place for more than a second before the loud pop of a launched explosive projectile echoed around the bunker. Within the second, a smoke trail pointed out the fired projectile as it blatantly ignored kinetic barriers and met the broadside of the dropship. Flames instantly but briefly engulfed the ship, and what was left was definitely damaged beyond repair. It rocked violently in place, and the hum – once it was audible after the explosion – fluctuated. Soon after that it quickly sank to the surface and erupted once again on impact, joining its destroyed brethren on the planet's surface.
"The thing about this strategy," the quarian next to Kevin started to explain, "The more downed dropships there are, the more cover the geth have to get in closer. It's like we're slowly killing ourselves while we prevent immediate defeat. Depressing, huh?"
"A wonderfully positive attitude, captain," Kevin sarcastically replied.
"A wonderfully positive attitude can make you blind," she noted. "We've all resigned ourselves to death already, with the intention of making the geth's losses equally as great. Then you showed up."
"I always did make a great entrance," Kevin stated.
"I hope you can make just as great an exit."
"Here comes the next wave, ma'am!" A yet unknown female quarian announced.
"Ready yourself. They always start with two dropships. It's the toughest part of the wave," the captain said as she brought her rifle up to the window. "I hope you brought thermal clips."
Just then, two dropship fell in altitude in the distance and lined themselves up behind old wrecks of other dropships. Each one shot out eight geth troopers down to the surface with the resulting thuds sounding like distant pops from a vehicle mounted mass accelerator.
"Ready for my mark. . ." the captain ordered. It seemed they had this geth shooting business down to a science. They waited for the distant geth to appear from around the wrecks and start their approach across the open ground.
"Fireteams two and three start your rounds. . . Now!" She announced. Immediately the silence in the air was gone and gunfire took its place.
"What team am I?" Kevin asked the captain.
"Two and three."
"That figures," Kevin said as he began firing.
This round was a bit different than the last. The geth were moving in at a new angle now since the dropship they just shot down landed closer than the others. More shots were actually aimed rather than just simply shot at the structure. This caused each of the quarians and Kevin to duck behind cover more often, disrupting the sequential flow of fire. The geth made it much closer this time, but in the end the initial push was destroyed. Once the normal flow of geth started to pour in around the closest downed ship, the fireteams had started to regulate their shot sequences with the additional time for cover figured in. When all was said and done, that wave had lasted a good half an hour. Finally another break in the constant and seemingly controlled chaos came about.
While everyone moved to gather what was left of the thermal clips, a message from the two up at the camp came in.
"Captain Kortel, this is Rolush."
"Tell me everything is all set up there, Rolush," the captain said anxiously.
"We have a problem!"
"You know I don't like problems, Rolush. What is it?"
"The geth blind-dropped a colossus on our camp!"
All of the quarians stopped dead in their tracks and looked up to captain Kortel. This was very, very bad.
"Almost all of the cargo is loaded. Just a few more crates to go. We had to pull those crates over for cover. We're with Garloh right now on the wrong side of the valley."
"What's the status of the colossus?" the captain asked, voice calm and calculating.
"It landed on an outcropping and took major damage to one of its legs. All it can do is turn in place slowly. The real issue is that it's focusing its fire on the ship, and if we try to get to it we'll be gunned down within seconds. What should we do?"
The captain took a moment to think. The timing of this couldn't have come at a worse moment. She looked over to the quarian bearing the massive launcher and called up to Rolush.
"I'm sending Merni to assist. Cover her approach and take that bosh'tet down."
"But captain, the dropships-" Merni started in protest, but was suddenly cut off by her captain.
"We'll handle the dropships. You handle the colossus. That's our only way out of this mess, Merni. We'll evacuate the moment that thing goes down."
It was clear Merni wanted to hesitate, but she didn't. "Yes ma'am. On my way."
"Ralik," Kevin called to his ship as the quarian started out of the room.
"I assume you've heard?" Ralik asked.
"Yes. Can the kinetic barriers hold for a few more minutes?"
"Perhaps. Those big projectiles hit hard. Tell me you have a plan for this, because I can't face the ship's cannon at it."
"We have a plan, Ralik. Hold tight."
Right then, they all heard the sound of a geth dropship hovering in close. Everyone looked at each other for a moment before scattering back to their gunning position.
"New plan, people," the captain announced. "We all need to make sure we have the ability to change position quickly. You must be ready to evacuate on my order whether the colossus is down or not. That means no high positions unless you have a clear – and I mean clear – path to the back."
"What about the injured?" Kevin asked.
"Don't talk to me about the injured right now."
Kevin bit his tongue. It was obvious she knew what had to be done, and that meant the injured couldn't come along. He could tell in her tone of voice that she wasn't happy about the outcome for them at all, and that she alone was the decision maker for that outcome. He wasn't one for leaving injured combatants behind, and even less for leaving injured civilians, but these were not his people. Instead of voicing his opinion, however, he simply nodded. She was their captain after all, not his.
They all bunkered into their new positions and pocketed any stacks of thermal clips that remained. Most of them lined up on the second deck wall with the captain and Kevin where they could easily get a shot at geth that dropped right in front of them. A few took positions in the back on a higher deck where they could drop out onto the back path through a tear on the backside. Any minute now they would be facing a close ranged assault that they knew they couldn't win. The hum of the empty dropship hovering over them was like a mocking reminder of that, and it only seemed to get louder. And louder.
And louder.
"Three dropships inbound!" someone shouted.
"Steady!" the captain shouted. "This is why we are Migrant Fleet Marines! Wait for my mark!"
Suddenly the thuds of multiple geth troops hitting the ground right outside the hull caused the ground to shake. Kevin drew in a breath and exhaled slowly. Things were about to get ugly real fast. Once the thuds stopped, the captain gave the order to start the counterattack.
"Lets bring the pain, marines! Fire at will and don't let them reach this ship!"
All at once, everybody at a forward position jumped up and brought a rain of death upon the geth who had just happened to be within the area of fire. Most fell, but enough remained to hold the position and fire back at those above, causing Kevin and those at the front to duck for cover before their kinetic barriers were drained. That submissive position was short-lived, however, as nobody wanted the geth to gain enough of a foothold to start breaching the damaged parts of the hull at ground level. There was a short exchange of fire before the last remaining geth of the initial drop fell.
Unfortunately the sound of more incoming dropships filled the air and a new set of geth troops were already being dropped as the first set fell. Kevin and the others knew that there would be no quarter from here on, so they focused fire on the unfolding geth hoping to take some out before they could pull out weapons. When the survivors of the set unfolded, weapons were immediately drawn and fired. Kevin's barrier had nearly been depleted, so he had to duck down again until they could recharge. Fortunately most of the other quarians could still take some fire before ducking behind cover, so the suppressive fire hadn't quite ceased.
Kevin decided to take this time to gather dark energy to himself. He'd supplement his suit's weak barriers with a biotic barrier to keep himself in the fight longer. After his kinetic barriers were replenished, he threw his biotic barrier around himself and jumped back up to get more shots on the geth. When he could see over his cover again, he realized just how short this battle was going to be. The number of geth they faced had doubled since he went down for cover. He wasted no time in letting loose a full barrage from his rifle, ejecting a clip and continuing. He saw his biotic barrier taking hits, but he knew it would take more than a couple shots to take it down.
"They're starting to breach! Directly below!"
"Wait, I have this one!" Another quarian shouted, jumping up and tossing something over the edge where it sank down to the geth multitude. "Bela says hi!"
There was a large explosion below them and a brief curtain of flame rose up outside the holes in the hull. It was no more than a second later that everyone was up shooting again. The goal was to hold them off as long as possible, and so far they were doing pretty well at it. Unfortunately, as soon as the geth below them were destroyed by the grenade, the dense crowd behind them filled in the space. One of the quarians took up a slightly higher position and began to shoot down on the crowd where the rest couldn't hit. He had to duck for cover pretty soon though, as the geth quickly noticed his location and opened fire, nearly getting through his barriers. These back and forth exchanges just kept on going.
There was a pop from outside and Kevin saw a smoke trail heading up towards where the other quarian took up a new position. The explosive made it through the ruptured hull and hit the wall behind the quarian. The resulting explosion tore through his already depleted shields and his armor while sending him crashing down to the ground floor below. Merely seconds later his death was announced.
"Heads up, marines. Nulor just got taken out by a rocket!"
"Rocket class? Keelah help us," captain Kortel said.
"They're breaching again, and I think we're out of grenades!"
"New positions, people!" the captain called out. "Prepare to counter the breach as long as we can before we evac out the back door!" With that said, she dropped her last grenade out the firing window and jumped down to the first floor.
Everyone on that same catwalk followed suit down a floor and bunkered themselves just inside the exiting hallway, using the brief lull in the attack the grenade had granted them to their advantage. As it was quickly becoming expected, it wasn't long before the geth resumed cutting their way through the weakened hull at the base. Sparks and a trailing lined of molten hull signaled their progress. Within the minute, they had breached through completely and the cut out portion fell back into the ship. Quickly following that was a near constant stream of geth troops filing into the previously secure holdout. Within that moment, everyone started firing on the increasing volume of geth soldiers.
Kevin had to back up past the morgue to take up a new position, and the only cover here was the doorless entry to the room with the deathbeds. He, the captain and one other male quarian took position here. Much to their dismay, however, several of the injured picked their heads up to look at them as they stood there. Neither Kevin, nor the captain, nor the third quarian could help but notice. Oh how distracting it was to have those doomed to their deathbeds staring at them as they retreated.
"Folner, Votis, hold here a moment. Keep providing cover fire." The captain broke off from her defensive position to go talk to the injured in the room.
The people guarding the entrance to the hallway had to fall back. As they did, a rocket entered into the hallway, threatening to take everyone out in one blow. One of the quarians, who seemed to have already been shot in the side chose the warrior's way out and lingered, blocking the path of the rocket. The explosion rocked them all and only one other was taken by the blast, but they effectively saved the rest. As the one remaining in front of Kevin and Votis had backtracked to cover behind them, they resumed stalling the geth advance with more fire.
"Blasted synths," Votis spat, sounding rather enraged. "No captain should ever have to tell her injured that she has to abandon them. It's either stay here and defend them for a few extra minutes and die, or leave them behind in order to save our own hides. I do not envy the captain right now."
The onslaught of geth continued to pour in at them, but with the numbers reduced due to having to file into a tight corridor, they were a bit easier to hold off. At least until the female who had taken cover behind them ran out of thermal clips.
"I'm out of thermals!"
Votis spun around and tossed a thermal clip to her. "Last one, Tavval. Make it last. Captain?"
Right then the captain solemnly stepped out of the room. "Pack it up, we're leaving."
"Yes ma'am," all the remaining combatants replied.
They started their exit by holding the final corner before the long straight hallway back to the door that leads out to the path.
"Tavval!" The captain shouted. "Get that door open on the double!"
"Yes ma'am!" she shouted as she pulled up her sniper rifle and booked it for the door down the hall.
"We need to hold this spot! We aren't going anywhere until we can sprint out that door!" The captain ordered.
Now there was a hallway full of geth bearing down on them and Votis was on his last clip. Kevin dug a clip out of his arm pocket in anticipation of the moment when Votis would need it. A rocket came flying at them, so they all ducked into the hallway and behind the corner they were using for cover. It missed them entirely and continued down the rest of the hallway behind them where it detonated harmlessly. Kevin picked out the rocket class geth among the ever growing group down the hall and took as careful aim as the moment would allow. Shooting down there was like shooting at a wall of kinetic barriers.
"I'm out of clips!" Votis called out, right as Kevin was sighting on the rocket launching geth.
"Here!" Kevin said, tossing the clip he held in his hand over his shoulder.
"Thanks," Votis said, hesistantly. "That tall one on the left is the rocket class geth. If I get its shields down, can you take it out before it fires again?"
"I bet my life on it," Kevin confidently stated as he replaced his own last clip.
Votis began unleashing a fully automatic rain of fire towards that particular geth. He had two geth shields to get through before the destructive geth would be exposed. Votis' rifle would not be denied, however, and the kinetic barriers of both the rocket launcher and the geth in front of it were downed. Taking this moment to aim, Kevin shot several bursts at the target, and was pleasantly surprised when both heads exploded in a shower of sparks from the volleys.
"Door's open! Come on, this party's over. Let's go!"
"Run for the door! Go!" the captain called out as they started a sprint for their only exit.
Once they were all outside, Tavval shut the heavy door behind them.
The captain turned around and took a deep breath. "Get this door sealed. I don't want any of them enjoying the view."
"View of what?" Kevin asked.
No one answered him. Instead, Tavval and Votis set to work melting the edges of the door to the edges of the hull with their omni-tools.
"View of what?" Kevin asked once again. Still there was no answer.
"Alright, that's good enough. Let's get out of here." the captain ordered.
They all started their way back up the hill. Despite the fact that Tyr was focusing on the colossus, there were no geth in sight all the way up the hill. That was good news, as that would mean their trek up would be free and clear. To their dismay, however, the fight at the camp with the colossus could still be heard going on, and none of them had much of anything in the way of thermal clips or other means to battle it. To add to that, the sound of a dropship could be heard overhead.
Captain Kortel went to go alert Merni over the comms of the incoming dropship, but she never got the chance; a high-powered rocket was already on its way to greet the dropship from the camp. The explosion was beautiful, and the sight of the loaded dropship crashing into the flats behind them was equally as beautiful.
"She's good," Tavval noted.
"Alright, it's time," the captain stated as she halted her hike and turned around to face the bunker that saved their lives, which was now full of geth troops. She tapped on her omni-tool a few times, waited a moment and then tapped on it again. When she was done, she slowly rose her head to the ship at the base of the hill.
Suddenly the entire thing erupted in a massive explosion. It was so big that the flame rose up into the air and created a classic mushroom cloud and the shockwave knocked all four of them over.
"No! The captain!" Tyr shouted over the radio.
"It's alright, Garloh," Kortel assured. "A few of us made it out alive. We're almost to the camp." She sighed a long sigh and then turned to head up the path. "Let's move."
"Only a few?" Rolush rhetorically asked.
As the four survivors from the battle in the ship came up the hill and turned their last corner, their moods were already improving. The first sight they caught of the troublesome colossus were that of its head exploding due to a rocket exploding on its lens. The massive form of the colossus trembled and then collapsed amid its own sparks.
When colossus fell to the ground, it revealed what was right behind it. A magnificent, shiny and most importantly, fully functional frigate. Kevin stepped ahead of the three quarians returning with him and turned around to walk backwards and face them. He put his arms out to his side in introduction and smiled beneath his helmet.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you. . ." Kevin started before turning around to face his ship. ". . . The Kellius!"
Rolush, Garloh, Merni and Welkas were already cheering from having taken down a colossus, but now Votis and Tavval joined in with them at having actually been saved. They all even used the comms channel to transmit their victory, and Kevin couldn't help but smile despite all that had just happened. The surviving quarians were very, very happy to see that ship.
"Alright, alright," the captain said, now in a much more cheery tone compared to the uphill trek, "Welkas, Rolush, let's get the last few crates on the Kellius and get out of this nightmare."
"Yes ma'am!" Welkas and Rolush answered in tandem, still half cheering.
As they got to work, Kevin lead the rest of the quarians onto the Kellius via loading ramp. The cargo bay was now full almost so much that there was almost no room to walk. The two that loaded the cargo clearly thought ahead, though, since there was a path right down the center comfortably wide enough for one person. Kevin lead them right up to the first deck and towards the front of the ship where they could either sit down at the briefing table or accompany him to the bridge where Ralik was still sitting. All but the captain and Tavval decided to sit at the table.
"Nice frigate you've got here, Folner," Kortel admitted. "Looks brand new."
"I like to keep it well maintained," Kevin replied.
"Where's the crew?" Tavval asked.
"You're looking at it," Ralik responded as he spun his chair to be visible to the others.
Kortel leaned back and folded her arms in disbelief. "Just you two?"
"Well there's also-" Kevin started, only to be cut off by none other than his favorite assistant.
"Alert. Kevin, there are multiple unknown alien life forms aboard the ship."
"-Terra. The ship's VI and systems control in times of need. Terra, all of these life forms are quarians, and they are allowed aboard."
"Would you like to construct profiles-" This time Kevin cut Terra off, in an almost intentional fit of revenge.
"Later. Right now we need to go before more geth show up. Ralik, if you don't mind?"
"I do mind, Kevin," Ralik snapped with impressive amounts of serenity. "But I also agree. See? Here they come."
All four of the people on the bridge looked out through the viewports and saw more geth troops turning the corner on the far end of the valley.
"Well aren't they persistent," Kevin grumbled. "See if you can give them a little thruster surprise, Ralik."
"With pleasure," Ralik replied with a growing smirk.
The Kellius then activated the mass effect drive core and started to lift off. Downward thrusters lifted the ship away from the surface before the whole ship started to spin. It turned one hundred and eighty degrees and angled the nose up in preparation for leaving the planet. Ralik waited in that position patiently, though. Soon the geth started to gather behind the ship, firing pointlessly at it. Just a moment later, when Ralik was satisfied with the number of geth that had gathered, he punched on the thrusters. The obscene amount of heat generated by the ship's thrusters scorched the surface, destroyed trees and nearly vaporized any and all geth unfortunate enough to gather behind the Kellius. At the same time, the frigate jetted off towards open space, away from planet L2588 and away from the geth.