Astella Garrison, Nevos

Day 1, 1310

Crack crack. Crack crack. Crack crack crack crack…

A chatter of high-pitched, fast-paced rifle fire drowned out the slow bursts of Andersen's Predator as Ethan rushed up to his side, the both of them aiming a bevy of shots down the corridor. At the far end, on the right side, the Brute was point-blank ignoring them as it tried to force its massive frame through the rather smaller elevator door, bright flashes filling the air as shots ricocheted off the armoured arm. With a brutal crunch of metal, its shoulders broke through, tearing open the doorway to the elevator shaft and scattering half of the steel panel into the far wall.

Ethan dropped onto one knee, pouring out fire from a fresh mag, as Andersen braced his pistol on his arm and fired away with that as well, his brain running over the situation. Both weapons were low-calibre, the Brute heavily armoured… even as they drowned out in lead, shots were bouncing harmlessly off patches of armour and thick hide. A couple of stray rounds from Ethan's Avenger glanced its stomach and disappeared through the open door to the barracks beyond, but a moment, the creature bowed low, the larger arm moving down like a shield to cover head and belly alike.

Then, the thing reared to its full, terrifying height, with a roar. Two light fixtures went flying, shattering into pieces, and the ceiling itself was left dented and buckled as the Brute dropped back down again, rumbling…

"Flank?" Andersen murmured, a little nervously, as his pistol ran dry and he reached for a fresh mag.

"Flank," Ethan nodded, with a gulp. The rest of the squad were still behind them, backs exposed as they kept their focus on the street outside.

"Okay, on three. One…"

The Brute crouched lower, snorting and growling gutturally.

"Two…"

It rocked backwards, leg muscles flexing powerfully.

"Three!"

The monster charged just as the two humans broke, and as it barrelled down the corridor, they were already rushing headlong to either side. Ethan was by far the quicker of the two, breaking off to the right, and as the Brute passed him snarling, he had already dropped to one knee, sliding to a halt on it as he brought his rifle around and cut a livid line of shots, a dozen or more, up the Brute's side. Andersen kept his head down, concerned himself with getting past that massive claw arm.

Flailing as its momentum faltered and it tried to turn, the side of the Brute's arm almost caught him in the flank, and it was all the engineer could do to hurl himself out of the way. He tumbled, fell into a rough combat roll, and bounced into the corridor's left wall, shooting out one arm to steady himself as the other raised his pistol:

Crack! A single shot, well-placed in the back of the Brute's thigh, and it folded to the ground, skidding another foot or so before picking itself up and rounding on them. It was snarling angrily, blooded more than crippled, but at the very least, it was moving away from the rest of the squad now…

"Bunk room!" Ethan barked, rising from his knee and setting off at a run for the barracks at the far end of the corridor, one open door away from them. Andersen just nodded, moving to follow him as the Brute came charging back up the corridor, gaining momentum-

Thump. An impact that felt like a small skycar caught him in the back, knocking him effortlessly off his feet and across the floor. He slid along, rolled onto his back, caught a flash of the Brute's claw arm raised high mid-swipe… with a grunt of pain, he skidded into the wall beside the elevator, head spinning.

Crack crack crack! Ethan's rifle started up again, three bright flashes filling the air and reminding Andersen that they were both very close to the Brute right now. The turian head on the krogan shoulders snapped back, recoiling as a rifle round shot clean through one glowing eye, and then it whirled left, practically lungingfor the sentinel.

Cash darted away to his right, speed saving him but not quite enough to beat the beast's charge in such an enclosed space. One armoured shoulder caught him in the back, shunting him into the doorpost, and he bounced away into the corner between the barrack door and the wall, rifle tumbling off by his boots.

The lieutenant lunged in, aiming to distract the Brute at least long enough for Ethan to get back up. He snapped two shots at the creature's exposed flank, then wreathed his omni-tool in flame and swung it up and over, the Brute's head in sight-

Wham! With surprising speed and not-so-surprising severity, the big hulk wheeled back to the right, and its claw arm caught him in a hefty backhand. He toppled back off his feet, visor shattering noisily with the impact, and he felt the back of his helmet rattle painfully off the wall-

…nope, not the wall. The edge of the elevator door, because a moment he was spinning out into open air, the ground beneath his feet vanishing as he tumbled into the empty shaft. There was a sharp bark of surprise from Ethan somewhere in the background, and a jolt of panic ran down the engineer's spine. He flung out both arms, abandoning his pistol entirely and hearing it bounce loudly off the walls as it clattered down to the ground floor.

By some small shred of luck, the engineer himself wasn't clattering down anywhere. His left arm had hooked around the remnants of the doorway as he fell, more on instinct than anything else, and he hauled up his right with some effort, hooking it over the edge of the precipice. After a few moments of flailing, his feet found some purchase at knee-level, a junction box or some such…

Crunch. His attention snapped back up to the corridor above at the sound of rending metal. The Brute's claw arm had just taken a chunk out of the doorway leading to the bunk room, and much to the lieutenant's concern, Ethan was trapped on this side of the doorway, not that side. With a curse of frustration, the sentinel gave up any attempt to recover his rifle, igniting both omni-blades instead.

The Brute clung tight to the doorframe with its claw arm, pressing the other firmly into the wall and using both to ramits shoulders forward like a piston. Ethan took a shoulder plate right in the ribs, and grunted in pain as the force of the charge knocked him up the wall, off the feet. Even as the monster snapped and snarled, however, he had managed to drive one omni-blade into the soft flesh above its shoulder, pinning it into his grip and preventing it from backing off for another charge. With the other blade, he took two wild swipes at the creature's neck, hacking away dead flesh and drawing blood, but as the Brute snapped and gnashed its jaws, he dissolved the blade entirely and shot out his hand instead, taking tight hold of… something. It could have been a metal tube, it could have been a jawbone, it was hard to tell with such a mess of cybernetics. The Brute roared again, trying to inch its head closer to the marine, but he kept a tight if laboured grip, holding the skull away from him even as his blade slipped further into the shoulder.

Andersen tore his eyes away from the stalemate as a bright red flash lit up the elevator shaft, emanating up from below. Peering down over his shoulder, he saw a bloodied Cannibal take two shots from amidst the wreckage of the elevator, firing out at something on the ground below. There was a panicked cry, a clatter of movement, then two bright blue shots which filled the corners of his vision. The Cannibal tumbled into the wreckage, with a groan.

"Contact down. Elevator's clear, captain."

"Copy that."

With hurried steps, two asari stepped into the wreckage at the bottom of the shaft. One was reloading a curved Disciple shotgun, still hot from killing the Cannibal. The other was fiddling with the radio, eyes lowered attentively.

"Hey!" he barked, not even bothering to go for the radio. "Up here!"

The two of them wheeled around in surprise, and it took them a moment to look up, eyes widening at the sight of the engineer. Before either of them could reply, another baleful roar from the Brute had gone echoing down the elevator shaft, and he yelled:

"Shotgun! Now!"

The trooper just looked blankly up at him, but the radio operator seemed to have more presence of mind. She dropped her gear, grabbed the Disciple out of her stunned friend's hands, and hurled it upwards with all the force she could muster, and just a flicker of biotics.

Andersen snatched it out of the air with his free hand, tucking it under the crook of his arm and throwing caution to the wind as he kicked off from the junction box, propelling himself up and over the edge. The lieutenant swung his boots up onto solid ground, scrambling away from the edge and falling onto one knee, shifting the freshly-loaded shotgun into his arms.

Bang! Bang! Bang! The gun was surprisingly light, and the recoil caught him by surprise, punching him in the shoulder as three livid blue rounds lit the corridor. The first punched into the Brute's belly, the second and third tracked upwards with recoil, catching its flank, its shoulder…

The monster roared and groaned, back slumping as the shells tore great messes of blood and flesh out of its side. It lurched to the right, ignoring the damage done by Ethan's blade and weakly reaching out for the engineer with its claw arm. He just put his hand to the trigger again-

Bang. The clip ran empty with one more shot, but not before said shot had taken a chunk out of the Brute's collar and neck. It groaned once, and slumped to the floor - dragging Ethan with it, his omni-blade still buried in its shoulder.

Panting slightly, the marine yanked his blade back out and folded it away, extricating himself from the dead creature's torso. He doubled over, took a couple of deep breaths - Andersen was doing the same - and then glanced up, staring incredulously at the shotgun.

"…I could get used to one of these," the engineer muttered.