Ashley ran her thumb along the heavy black line that marred the crest of her helmet. A passing round had left a shallow groove in the white plate, burning away the outermost layer of the ablative armor and exposing the grey, sandpaper-like material below.
Brushing away the blackened granules of paint and ceramic, she inspected the fracture for a moment before lifting the helmet from her lap and turning it over in her hands. It bore several jade-colored grass stains and she pulled a few strands of dead, brown grass from a few of the seams where the armored plates met.
Inspecting it for a few seconds more, she set the helmet against the base of the small tree she was reclining against and with the slightest flick of the wrist activated her omnitool, casting a warm orange glow across her face.
Tapping at the semi-translucent display, a small rectangular display appeared above her forearm bearing the details of various radio frequencies. Using two fingers to drag one of the frames to the center of the display, Ashley's earpiece began to spit the heavy, garbled static of the lifeless main radio net into her ear.
Switching from one frequency to another with a quick swipe of the hand, the platoon leader found several of the backchannels to be similarly distorted, and the luckless gunnery chief was unsurprised to find that a number of other communication and navigation utilities had been rendered useless.
Turning her gaze to the rich red-orange sky as if she might catch sight of the errant satellite, a small, tired frown creased Ashley's face.
Letting the images on her wrist fade, her eyes fell back to ground level. She was settled in a tiny clearing amongst a thicket of tangled undergrowth where the heavy canopy of branches parted to allow sunlight to bathe the grassy floor of the forest in amber light.
Nickeli—the stranger who had stumbled upon the Alliance soldier as she scouted the remains of the scientists' camp—reclined opposite her with his back against a sizeable tan boulder. He had elected to keep an eye out when they'd first arrived, but the sun-warmed rock had won out, and he now lay with his eyes gently closed and his arms folded across his chest. The steel-colored muzzle of his sidearm stuck out near his left armpit, and as Ashley silently watched the rise and fall of his chest, the creeping heaviness of exhaustion found her as well.
Scooting to brace her back against the trunk of a nearby sapling, the gunnery chief let her head lull forward slightly until her chin rested somewhat comfortably against the armored collar of her hardsuit and she closed her eyes in the hopes of finding a moment's reprieve.
However, her mind refused to allow her rest. Instead, the images of a few hours before replayed, and after only a few minutes her eyes snapped open once again. Even then, the fresh memories continued as she reclined there. The cold efficiency of the geth was a horror in itself, but there remained the gargantuan craft she'd seen descend through the clouds.
As she sat, a distant rumble rose from the silence, and Williams quickly got to her feet and moved to the center of the clearing where a gap in the canopy offered a view of the horizon.
The rumble grew to a thunderous roar, and for a split second she caught a glance of a streak of silver as a ship raced low overhead. The warbling drone of its engines became steady as the craft halted somewhere out of sight and began to descend.
"Friends of yours?" Nickeli queried, now alert and standing a short distance behind the gunnery chief.
"I'm not sure," Ashley answered hesitantly. The craft had certainly sounded too large to be a shuttle from a different part of the colony, but she found the fact that it had touched down such a long ways from the spaceport somewhat concerning. Regardless, the poor bastards had no idea what they were walking into.
The fact remained that until word could be sent back to Alliance command, people would continue to die, and given the ruthlessness of their enemy, the colony might very well be wiped out if that message wasn't sent soon.
"We need to get moving," the gunnery chief urged softly, "there's a communication outpost not far from here that may've escaped the attack."
Nickeli said nothing, but gave a slight nod when she glanced back at him.
The pair set out in the direction of the outpost, creeping through the rocky, tangled underbrush as they skirted the colony. Despite their careful pace, the terrain made for a grueling trek and after a short while they halted and collapsed in the hollow of a dried, vegetation-choked creek bed.
The corpsman settled against a particularly steep section of the embankment, his forehead and shirt sticky with sweat. The gunnery chief followed suit, sitting down against the opposite bank and laying her rifle across her lap as she extended her legs and reclined slightly.
After a short silence, he glanced in her direction and found the armored woman staring back, her mouth slightly agape as if she had stopped just short of speaking. Seeing that he had noticed her, Ashley finally spoke.
"I don't think I've seen you around before," She explained, "Are you from another part of the colony?"
"Uh, no. Not exactly."
"Oh," She replied, seeming a bit surprised. "You looked kind of military, so you I thought you might be with the militia. Where're you from?"
"Earth." Nickeli ventured, hoping he wasn't outing himself. The fact was he had a very limited understanding of what was going on, and for now he saw no reason to raise suspicions by trying to explain the rather curious series of events that had brought him there. Fortunately, the marine saw no hint of suspicion coming from the slightly older woman. In fact, a wry smile crossed her face.
"How'd you manage to find yourself here?"
The medic's lips parted briefly to flash a lopsided grin. "I've been wondering that myself, actually."
The conversation abruptly ended when the gunnery chief's expression suddenly became serious and she lifted a hand, indicating for him to be silent.
From the direction of the scientists' camp, something rapidly drew near along the worn gravel road that ran adjacent to the culvert where they were concealed, its approach sounded by a grating electronic whine that made the medic involuntarily grit his teeth.
From where he sat the foliage was too thick for him to see the stony avenue, but Williams watched it with trepidation as the unbearable howl reached its crescendo. Through a small windows in the vegetation Nickeli spotted a pair of small, dark forms dart passed—both seeming to hover a fair distance above the ground as they travelled.
The two soldiers held their breath as they passed, and there was a tense silence as the sound faded. Ashley carefully peeked from her concealment to inspect the now empty road before glancing to the medic and flashing an expression of relief.
However their reprieve was short-lived, and in the time it took Nickeli to return the smile there was the earsplitting report of automatic weapon fire and the creek bed where they were hiding exploded in a torrent of splintered wood and shredded vegetation.
As the corpsman scrambled away from the fire and tried frantically to free his weapon from his waistband Ashley grabbed him by a shoulder and directed him out of the thicket with a hearty shove.
She was close on his heels as he ran, and he could hear the warbling drone of the hovering synthetics as they gave chase and a dozen white-blue points of light hissed as they raced past him.
Suddenly it felt as though his ankle had been slashed with a red-hot poker and the resulting false step turned his ankle and sent Nickeli tumbling into the chalky soil. Recovering quickly, he rolled onto his back as the gunnery chief skidded to a halt beside him and turned to face the pair of drones pursuing them. Both seized their sidearms in an instant and met the deafening sputter of the machine guns with the pistols' sharp barks.
The drones lurched to a halt, throwing their aim off target as their shields vanished in a faint burst of light and one of the rounds, from William's weapon or his own Nickeli couldn't be sure, sparked off the metallic carapace of one of the small craft as if someone had struck a match against it.
The drone, an unwieldy looking pill balanced atop a gun mount, wobbled violently and pitched downward. Seeing its partner crash to earth, the other machine turned to flee, but a well-placed shot by the gunnery chief snatched it from the air and it tumbled end-over-end a short distance before disappearing from sight.
Thumbing the safety, the corpsman tucked his weapon back into his waistband and took a moment to inspect his wounded foot. A sizeable gash cleanly bisected the rugged leather shell of his boot and his sock had been peeled away to expose the pale and bloodied flesh beneath.
However, the damage to his footwear proved to be much more severe than the actual injury itself, and the corpsman found only a shallow depression that ran horizontally across his ankle. Concluding there was little he could do about the light bleeding for the time being, he folded down the top of his sock to cover it with a grimace.
Williams, who had been standing quietly with the stock of her rifle tucked beneath one arm, offered a gloved hand and pulled the marine to his feet.
With a nod, he fell in behind her as they continued in the direction of the distant outpost, his gait made somewhat uneven by the nagging discomfort of his twisted ankle.
However, Ashley slowed as the road ahead of them spread into a sizeable, rock-strewn clearing that she recognized as being situated nearly adjacent to the excavation site. Beneath her helmet, the gunnery chief's face cinched into a wary frown as she surveyed the stretch of exposed grassland, quietly loathing the unwinnable situation that was set before her.
Crossing the clearing to the grove on the other side was the most direct route to the outpost, but it meant leaving the relative safety of the area's thin woodlands and braving the half-kilometer of open ground that led away from the settlement. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no alternative.
The area they were in was flanked by sheer a rock face on one side and the dig site and camp on the other, and the only other route to the Alliance outpost would require doubling back, possibly into the waiting maw of a force of geth that was now aware of their presence.
With no small amount of reservation, Williams turned to Nick and indicated for him to keep following with a slight wave of her rifle.
The medic peeked around her, observing the open ground with a look of apprehension, no doubt just mindful of the risk as she was.
Receiving a nod that didn't strike her as particularly confident, Ashley broke from cover and ventured into the open at a brisk but careful walk and the private was keen to keep pace. As he kept to the gunnery chief's heel he noticed how her head was constantly moving; meticulously planning each step and searching the rocks and shadows with a steely look that almost looked defiant—as if she were daring the enemy to appear.
The first two hundred meters went well, and as they approached the half-way point Nickeli allowed himself to release a deep breathe he had unknowingly been holding, believing, for a fleeting second, that they had slipped from the cold metal grasp of their foe.
Then, far off to their right, a blue-white starburst erupted from a hedgerow and an incoming round cut through the space between to the pair. Optimism never had done the young corpsman much good. The two scrambled into the refuge of a nearby boulder as the air filled with teal points of light that sizzled and hissed as flew past.
Roughly throwing himself behind one of the hulking grey stones, Nick caught a glimpse of Ashley as she drove into cover and came up firing, the heavy staccato of her rifle sounding in opposition to the smooth, rolling report of the geth carbines.
Braving the withering fire, he peered over the boulder for a brief moment.
From the direction of the dig site three figures stalked down a slight incline, locked perfectly in stride with one another and their weapons at their shoulders as they advanced at an almost leisurely pace.
A short distance behind them marched a more imposing synthetic, towering a full head above its humanoid subordinates with a cylindrical mast jutting from its back. Atop its craning neck was a single, glassy lens, glowing with the same unblinking white-blue light as the hollow-eyed creatures that had hunted the corpsman earlier that morning.
However as the machine watched over its subordinates below the crack of a rifle shot sounded from the grove, and the machine jerked as a hole was punched through the blue-grey plate that covered the upper portion of its chest, sending a jet of milky white blood and synthetic flesh out the back of its torso.
The smaller geth abruptly stopped firing and turned to watch as the lumbering machine struggled to remain upright, calling out to one another in a baleful, garbled baritone of whirling and grating electronic squeals as their leader toppled to the ground. Even without understanding what they were saying, Nickeli recognized the rapid, disjointed tones of confusion and he brought his weapon to bear.
Rising from the cover of the stony outcrop, he grew a bead on the nearest machine as automatic fire erupted from the grove and cut into the enemy's flank.
The geth fought back with sporadic fire, but exposed and outflanked, they were quickly overwhelmed, and the last synthetic fell to the ground a lifeless husk as Nick's sidearm clicked empty.
As the gunfire ceased, the rapidly fading echo of the gunshots was replaced by the ringing in the corpsman's ears as he deposited the pistol's empty magazine into his palm and exchanged it for the loaded one in his pocket.
Snapping the slide shut with a flick of the release, he glanced up and caught sight of a pair of armored figures as they emerged from the cover of the grove and approached the cluster of boulders where he and Ashley were situated.
Both soldiers were clad in grey, featureless plate armor with helmets that obscured their faces, and Nickeli couldn't help but feel a little ill ease by the arrival of the vaguely sinister looking strangers. However he contented himself with the fact that the gunnery chief seemed relieved to see them.
As one of the soldiers approached the shining gold of his visor disappeared, revealing a pair of amber eyes that scrutinized the pair for a moment before turning to survey the dead geth that littered the slope.
"Thanks for the assist, lieutenant." Williams said drawing the stranger's attention as she rose stiffly, her rifle hissing faintly as it cooled. "Are you in charge of this outfit?"
The brown-eyed officer shook his head before bringing two fingers to where Nickeli imagined his ear was and sharply glancing back toward the tangled undergrowth. "Commander, we're all clear up here."
A brief moment later a single figure emerged from the timberline clutching a massive rifle across his chest. The soldier cut an imposing figure as he approached, his charcoal colored armor a sinister black under the crimson, late morning light. A blood red stripe ran the length of one arm and N7 was emblazoned prominently beside a small crimson triangle on his chest piece.
As he neared, the rifle in his hands compacted neatly and he stowed it on his back beside a number of other weapons. When he finally joined the group, Nickeli was somewhat surprised to find that the soldier was of much slighter build than he had first perceived.
"Gunnery Chief Williams, Twelfth Platoon, Second Company." The female marine stated crisply, saluting the senior officer with a slight bow of the head.
"Are you hurt, Williams?" A feminine voice queried, eyeing the stains and gouges that marred the woman's armor.
"Mostly just scrapes and bruises." The chief bit her lip for a moment before continuing. "The rest of my squad didn't make it. We were trying to get back to the scientist's camp to link up with Charlie Squad when the geth caught us crossing some open terrain. We got scattered and the geth hunted down anyone who survived the initial attack."
The newly arrived officer furrowed his—her brow. "Are there any other Alliance forces in the area?"
"Bravo and Charlie are gone." Ashley lamented with a shake of the head. "Able would've been en route to the space port when the attack started. They might've made it, but I haven't been able to raise them."
"It's just us, then." The commander muttered, glancing around the group of five. Nickeli would've expected the officer to be somewhat deterred, but she wasn't—in fact, she even seemed a bit tired with the whole situation, as if it were more of a simple annoyance rather than something to be properly concerned about.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," Williams interjected, "But I don't think I caught your names."
The soldier in the red-striped armor leveled a finger at man whose brown eyes were once again hidden by his visor. "Lieutenant Alenko," She shifted to the other trooper who had arrived with the first. "Corporal Jenkins."
Finally, she tapped her index finger against her chest piece. "I'm Commander Shepard of the Normandy. We're here to retrieve the beacon."
A/N: Well, I'm done apologizing for long waits between chapters, at any rate. I will however apologize that this chapter isn't as long as I'd hoped. I'd wanted to take it all the way through to the end of Eden Prime, but I just got the sense it'd be better to cut it here and pick up fresh with another chapter. I think rather than trying to write longer chapters, I'll simply write ones around this length (~3000 words) and combine them later if I see fit.
I actually hadn't planned to use FemShep—it was a spur-of-the-moment decision while editing, so I guess we'll have to see where it ends up.