Last Bastion, Kahje
Day 1, 1815
"Lieutenant, are you there?"
"Affirmative," Sarah nodded, pulling up her omni-tool. "Signal's patchy, but I hear you, Mac."
"Good. I believe we have located the crash site. We just need a way up."
"Is there one?"
"We're… working on it."
"Alright. Any movement at the crash site?"
"I'm not sure. But there's definitely movement below it. You should be aware - we've sighted husks in the building."
"Copy that, we've seen them over here too. None alive yet, just corpses."
"If only we were we so fortunate," the assassin sighed. "They're moving on the crash site."
"Then you need to get up there, ASAP."
"As I said… working on it."
"Okay, okay… stay on the line, Mac."
"Affirmative."
The radio fell silent, and Sarah dropped her omni-tool to her side, setting both hands on her pistol once more. The squad had climbed up through the stairwell before turning off it - currently, they were pacing along a narrow corridor, en route to the administrator's office. Solara was charting the course, with Sarah and Ekris a pace or two behind. Irving was off ahead, checking a door that had lain ajar-
Crack crack crack. Everyone snapped to attention at the sound of gunfire, and three bright flashes from further down the corridor.
"Live one!" Irving hollered, rifled still wedged through the gap in the door. After a moment, he glanced in, and muttered: "Well, it was…"
"We had to find the first one sooner or later…" Sarah murmured, shifting her grip cautiously. "Eyes open, everyone. Stay together."
Irving nodded, and trotted back over to the rest of the squad, rifle still clutched in his arms. Carefully, and yet picking up the pace all the same, they continued along the corridor, past dead and sparking doors, under busted lights and ceilings.
"Right from here," Solara nodded, as they reached a crossroads. "Up the stairs at the end of this one."
They shifted right on command, and were presented with another stark corridor, lights burnt out and air stale. The only exits were a door at the end - the one Solara had noted - and another half way down, on the right. A water pipe had burst over the latter, flooding the middle stretch of the corridor up to an inch or so.
"Irving, Ekris, check the right," the lieutenant murmured.
The two men gave a nod in reply, and paced up to the door, weapons at the ready. Sarah hung back, gesturing for Solara to do the same and training her sights on the space between her two colleagues. With characteristic efficiency, they stacked either side of the door, checked their weapons once, and then moved in - Ekris hit the door release, Irving stepped through-
Crack crack, crack crack.
"Shit!" the marine yelled, his shots followed by the sound of a rifle casing bouncing off the floor.
"Chief! You alright?" Sarah called.
"I'm fine, two down, but… shit, you gotta see this, ma'am."
"That's the second time I've heard that today," she grumbled, making for the doorway. "This had better not be more bad… news."
She trailed off as she reached the door. Looking through, she saw Irving a few steps inside the door. Beyond him, two dead husks. And beyond them, a chunk of obsidian steel, twice the size of a man and unmistakeable…
"What is it?" Solara asked, from the end of the corridor.
"Reaper," Irving grunted. "Or, wreckage from one, anyway."
"So?"
"So, it's an indoctrination risk," Sarah snapped. "Goddamnit. We need to finish up quick, whatever we-"
Hmmm…
As one, the squad stopped, falling deathly silent. And yet, the humming continued, filling their ears, drowning out whatever background noise had been present before - the trickle of water, the creak of battered steel…
"Fuck."
Ekris and Irving both shot the lieutenant a look, a little amused despite the gravity of the situation.
"What?" she scowled. "I think that was a pretty good summary of the situation, personally!"
"Fair enough," the assassin muttered. "What do we do?"
"Chuck it," Irving grunted, immediately. When Sarah shot him a quizzical look, he just nodded to the far wall - the wreckage had smashed clean through when it came down, forging a nice entry wound on the way to its current location. Elaborating, the big marine sighed, exasperatedly: "We need it as far away from us as possible while we finish up. Ocean floor's good enough for me."
"And me," Ekris nodded. "Do you want to boot it, or shall I?"
"You?" Irving frowned, looking down at the much smaller drell.
The much smaller drell just flexed a biotic arm, and shot him a sardonic smile.
"Oh. Yeah, do that."
"Do that," Sarah nodded, in agreement. "And do it quick. Solara! Are we still clear out there?"
"Err… that may depend on your definition!" the other drell replied, appearing in the doorway with an expression of mild panic.
Sarah and Irving glanced once at each other, then made for the door, bracing their weapons. Sarah reached it first, stepped through, and-
Crack crack crack crack crack crack!
Rifle fire lit up the corridor around her, and she felt a sharp tug around her neck. A moment later, her brain began to process it, as Irving grabbed both her and Solara by the scruffs of their necks and pulled them back into the room, away from the stream of fire now billowing past. After a good half hour of relative quiet, it was almost disconcerting to be shot at again.
Irving, of course, was in his element, lumbering into cover with rifle in hand before Sarah had even picked herself up off the floor. He took one look down the scope of Ekris' rifle-
And ducked back quickly, as another burst of fire skidded through the spot his head had occupied a moment prior. Crack crack crack.
"Turian," he grimaced, as Solara and Sarah rose to their feet beside him. "Couple of runners, too."
"How far out?"
Hiss… at just that moment, a grey-blue form appeared in the doorway, spitting viciously and glaring at them, as if deciding which fresh face to go for first.
"Oh, you know…" Irving muttered, waving his hand sarcastically.
"Shut up and kill it!"
Crack crack crack, crack crack- bang! The two marines riddled the thing with bullets, before Solara dealt it a loud, crushing shot to the skull from her Carnifex. It tumbled, but as per the proverb, two more rose up in its place, bolting around the corner as if to answer the call now emanating from the Reaper wreckage behind them. There was no time to take a shot, as they rushed in close, and:
Thud. Irving caught one with his boot, smashing a knee and buying himself enough time to jump back, level his rifle, and blow the buggar away. The other one had gone straight for Solara, but to Sarah's mild surprise, the drell was ready for it - with her free hand, she grabbed a shock baton from her waist, dealt the husk a swift one-two to temple and chest, then brought her pistol back around and put a shot between its eyes.
That, she supposed, just left the turian. Sure enough, the Marauder rounded the corner a moment later, screeching bird-like and raising its rifle. Solara and Irving both went for their weapons, but Sarah beat them to it, flinging out her free hand. Quite suddenly, she found a vein of frustration and anger that had been welling up ever since she was knocked out of a shuttle, and had built through every second in this dark, dank shithole of a-
Wham. A shockwave burst from her arm, catapulting the Marauder back through the door and into the far wall. With a loud crunch, it bounced off and slumped to the floor, dead. Almost concurrently, another loud thrum of biotics sounded out in the background, followed by the scrape of metal, a groaning noise, and then, muffled as if leagues below them:
Sploosh.
"Problem solved," Ekris muttered, clapping his hands together. "Sort of."
"You alright, ma'am?"
Sarah looked across to see Irving staring back, a flicker of concern on his damp features. With a start, she realised her arm was still outstretched and… shaking, with each angry rise and fall of her chest.
"I… yeah," she nodded, shaking her head to try and regain some awareness. "Fine. Just a shit day, huh?"
She cracked the most winsome grin she could, and that seemed to satisfy him - he grinned back, and then promptly looked away, setting about reloading his rifle.
"That would appear to be all of them," Solara murmured, letting out a sigh of relief. "Shall we proceed?"
"Yeah," Sarah muttered. "One more room, and we're done…"