Astella Bay Highway, Nevos
Day 1, 1250
"Word from the LT, Rilum. Says to hurry the hell up."
"Amusing. Proper officer now."
"Our little gearhead's all grown up!" Dax barked, laughing happily as the chatter filled their radios. Araya couldn't help but giggle at the expression on his scarred face, even as the city descended into fire and chaos in the rear-view mirror.
Bravo had commandeered three hovertrucks from the asari, loaded them with all the gear they'd brought in the first place, and set off west from the stockpile. Now, they were cruising down the highway which cut out over the bay, moving low and fast to avoid the attention of the skirmishing Oculi and Harvesters above - as Araya glanced out of the window, she saw two of the red steel drones chase down an asari gunship, clipping its wings with beam fire and forcing it down into the waters of the bay.
Lynus Rilum was in command of the first truck, forging a path down the highway towards the rendezvous now blinking on all their HUDs. Hei Yui was driving the second, producing the wonderful mental image of his steel foot stomping on the pedals, and Dax was in the third, with Araya riding shotgun in his cab. When the two Oculi circled back, their prey destroyed, she couldn't help but fidget with the Locust in her lap, turning it over once or twice and sliding her finger to the trigger. The drones just soared overhead, ignoring the little specks on the road below as they whizzed off towards the next dogfight.
"Stay low," Rilum muttered over the radio, matter-of-factly. "The Reapers are gaining air superiority."
"How far to the rendezvous?" Dax grunted.
"Unsure."
"Great…"
The big krogan grumbled to himself, and his hands twisted slightly on the controls. With a quiet hum, the truck swung to the left side of the road, riding easily on a cushion of… air? Eezo? Araya didn't quite know how these things worked, only that they were slow as shit compared to a decent skycar-
Wham. There was a bright red flash up ahead, a splash of surf and fire from the edge of the road. Thin dark forms came twisting out of the flames…
…and Lynus' truck bowled right through the first two, reducing them to a fine mist.
"Ha!" Yui barked, as the rest of the Reaper creatures disappeared in the convoy's rear-view mirrors. A few faltering shots bounced off the tail of Dax and Araya's truck, but then the monsters were a speck in the distance, a worry no more.
"That was… huh," Araya murmured, glancing back through the small window behind their seats. "That felt easy."
"Wonder if the captain'll let us keep these?" Dax chuckled, patting the truck's controls.
"More contacts," Rilum announced. "Watch-"
Wham! Another burst of red fire and a shattering impact, this time closer at hand. The meteor skipped once off the highway, and slammed right into the second truck of the convoy.
"Whoa! Oookay…"
Dax swung desperately at the controls, and their truck skidded to the left, sliding a little way further down the road. Rilum's was already coming to a gentler stop, but between the two of them, Yui's truck was a battered hulk. The cab had been smashed utterly, glass was scattered across the road, and skeletal forms were shuffling out of the debris.
A loud growl and a shotgun blast, however, announced that Yui was still kicking. That was something. With a roar and a bloody cough, he leant down out of the cab, loaded another round into his Claymore, and blew the head off a Cannibal as it crossed around the front of the truck.
"Keep moving!" Lynus barked urgently, his own vehicle rising and twisting back to twelve o'clock. "Contacts incoming, we can't afford to be caught in the open!"
Sure enough, two more red-hot meteors were dropping from the heavens, even as Yui clambered back up into his cab with a grumpy rumble and turned the engine over. Araya gripped her Locust tighter as one went bowling across the road behind their tail, a couple of the dropped Cannibals stumbling right off into the water as they hit the highway's edge. The second was close behind, very close, and-
Wham!
Araya yelled out, ducking instinctively and throwing her hands over the back of her head, gun tumbling into the footwell as the fireball came down very close indeed. The truck's cab tipped upwards as the meteor hit their tail, and the glass window at the rear of the cab shattered, showering the occupants in broken glass. Dax roared and rumbled, shielding his eyes and flooring the accelerator even as the fire died away. Yui's truck was already racing away, cab dented and battered, and they set off in hurried pursuit, swinging rather clumsily down the road. With a baleful moan, a Cannibal that had been attempting to climb the crates on the truck's tail went sailing off into space, thudding down onto the road and disappearing into the distance.
Crack crack crack! Araya ducked again, and Dax flattened himself against the controls, as a burst of rifle fire ricocheted through the cab's rear window and shattered the front, showering them in glass again - Araya felt a flare of angry biotics ripple across her skin, as a shard cut across her cheek and more stung the arms above her head. The vanguard wheeled around, glancing back through the window just in time to see a Marauder straighten up, balancing precariously on the crates on the tail-
A large, gauntleted hand grabbed her none-too-gently by the collar, barking gutturally and shoving her head back out of the window frame as the Marauder's rifle opened up again:
Crack crack crack!
"Gah!"
Dax growled and coughed, leaning heavily on the controls with one arm - the other, in the act of pushing Araya away, had taken three shots from shoulder to elbow, orange-ish blood spattering onto the vanguard's seat. With another rumble, the krogan attempted to swerve left, and there was a loud clatter as the Marauder toppled out of sight. By some miracle, however, it clung on, and another burst of rifle fire bounced off the cab's ceiling.
Araya gave up fumbling for the Locust in the footwell, and reached for the Scimitar in the small of her back. Unfolding it clumsily in the cramped cab, she angled it up over her shoulder, through the rear window, and:
Bang bang! Two loud shots which bucked with recoil and caused the shotgun barrel to rattle off the window frame. Beyond, she heard the sound of a body tumbling onto the crates, and the ping of one of the cables atop them snapping, lashing out into open air.
"Gone?" Dax grunted, still hunched over the controls as his arm dripped steadily on the upholstery.
The vanguard twisted around, peering up into the window and leaning his shotgun to one side. There was no skeletal visage beyond, no dead turian face staring back-
Smash.
With a sudden tug of momentum, a cold arm grabbed her by the neck, and a jolt of panic ran down her spine. The glass window on her side of the cab had shattered, and the top half of a turian was leering through, head and arm filling the window as she twisted back to see it, still fighting with the claws on her collar. Her shotgun went tumbling down to the floor, too unwieldy to turn, and she lashed out instead with a closed fist, cracking a punch across the Marauder's solid jawbone. It hardly moved, giving a metallic thud and just bobbing slightly.
"Human!" Dax barked, glancing over with a mixture of concern and panic and trying to keep his good arm on the controls.
Araya didn't respond. The Marauder's rifle had come hovering up into the window, clutched in its free arm and whipping about in the wind as the creature continued to screech and snarl, claws raking the neck of her armour. She lurched back in her seat, crushing the monster's arm and causing it to let go of her for just a second. In the space of that second, she slammed her left hand into the shattered window frame, glowing blue with a hasty rush of biotics.
Whump. The Marauder yowled again, and its rifle went ricocheting off into open air as the mass effect field burst. Before the creature could react, Araya had gone for her belt with the other hand, yanking her new turian talon free. The husk lunged, shoulders jutting through the door as its free arm reached for her again-
She grabbed it in one hand, pinned it down against the dashed board, and stabbed in with her knife - one, two, three. The creature yowled and screeched and tipped back, one arm still gripping the rail to the side of the cab's door for dear life. Araya just dove at it, talon clutched backwards in her hand, and drove it in beneath the Marauder's eye socket. She winced as a spatter of blue-silver blood hit her face, and yanked the blade free. Without so much as a hiss, the skeletal turian tumbled out of sight, bouncing off the road and disappearing.
Araya slumped back in her chair, breathing heavily and still clutching her knife as a chill wind ripped through the cab's shattered windows. Up ahead, Yui and Rilum's trucks were winding their way towards the foothills, as Dax gained steadily on them.
"You, ah… you got a little something'," the krogan grunted.
The vanguard put a hand to her face, and her glove came away stained with a mixture of the turian's blood, and her own, trickling down from a slash on her cheek. She wiped it away - actually just smudging it across her face - and slid her knife back into her belt, quickly leaning down to recover her guns from the footwell.
"You too," she retorted as she did, punching his bloodied arm absent-mindedly.
"Gah!"
"…sorry!"