MASS EFFECT: ENTANGLED SERIES:

CHAPTER 33

**This takes place post Chapter 43 of "Solace."**

"Fixed and you should avoid close combat next time," Dr. Chakwas lectured Bray after she tended to his broken nose from his incursion with Jones onboard the Cronos Station.

"Heard you were holding your own there," Garrus mused as he walked in, overhearing the doctor's recommendation.

Bray shrugged indifferently as he slid off the examination table. "Shepard needed to get to the catalyst and that bastard was in her way." He mumbled a thank you to the medical officer, avoiding any further contact with the turian. His mood was soured by his presence after their few exchanges. Vakarian was very guarded ever since Bray was invited to Krysta's apartment during their shore leave celebration. His own experiences on Omega made Garrus distrust anyone from that area; especially those under Aria's payroll. His warnings to Krysta were ignored and there were many opposed to what the turian had to say to their leader. Garrus ignored this since he spent more days on Omega than most on her team. The only one close to him was Zaeed Massani and the merc was in the same boat as him. To add to the calamity, Garrus was not too thrilled that he was placed in a position with James Vega to disclose himself as Archangel to Bray. The mercs believed that their hated enemy was killed in the wake of Cathka's gunship. However, the bounty was never closed out due to the lack of proof. With this information, Bray could easily go to Aria with this. Her intent would hold this as leverage over the mercs' heads for control. That scenario was very unsettling to him.

"I was wrong about you," Garrus smiled with his thin lips as he extended his talons out for a handshake.

Bray disregarded the gesture and grunted. "Noted." Both sets of his eyes met the turian's. "If you believe I have some plot to undermine Krysta- "His eyes narrowed, "You're wrong."

Vakarian sighed as guilt struck him again. "We are on the same side. I've lost too many friends in this damn war. I don't know what will happen when we get to Earth, I guess it's 'end game', huh?"

There was no downtime after Alivia's unit arrived in London. They were approximately three clicks away from the FOB. The landing pad was hot and heavy with enemy ground troops; mostly husks and cannibals. The distorted batarian abominations with wide gaping mouths lumbered toward the group. "Push east! We need to get there before we are overtaken! We're alone out here!" Ulana barked over the gunfire.

"Couldn't we have parked closer?" Rhodes joked to make light of the deadly situation. He knew the shuttlecraft would be ripped out of the sky if they dared to land closer to the base. The pilot pushed it as it was, and he was already bogeying out.

Alivia activated her L3 implant and channeled the dark energy to send multiple shockwaves toward the incoming cannibals, tossing them like ragdolls to the sides. "Guys! This way!"

Rhodes followed her lead and nailed a few husks with his modified cryo rounds. He turned his head to see Torsk hanging back and swinging his war hammer at the swarm of husks, knocking them down like bowling pins. The krogan chortled loudly in heavy laughter by the entertainment. "You coming or what, Torsk?"

"Is this the great threat on Earth?" Urdnot Torsk snorted at the opposition. "My brood would be offended."

"Torsk! Move your ass!" Ulana stopped and growled in irritation. She then picked up her pace as she saw him moving their way as fast as an eight hundred-pound krogan in battle armor could.

Exhaling through her nose as she ran ahead, Alivia noticed that there was no sign of any enemies present on the remains of the street they were on. A lethal chill whipped through her hair. Keeping point, she used the scope of her rifle to double-check their surroundings. Satisfied that they were temporarily out of the woods, she tapped her comm, "All clear."

Rhodes made it to her side. "We're about four more blocks away," He panted to regain his breath. There were no signs of the ground troops following them. "I don't have a visual yet with all the debris and remaining structures."

"This can't be this easy," Alivia agreed as she smiled at Ulana who made it to them. "Mam, I'm not liking this."

The turian nodded. "Agreed, Lieutenant. Perfect location for an ambush."

Torsk finally made it up to the trio, breathing significantly heavier than they were. "Let's keep moving."

"I'll take point," Ulana stepped to go ahead. "Alivia, you cover me. Rhodes and Torsk, you watch the rear for both flanks."

After passing two blocks, Alivia grew anxious. They were so close. As they crossed onto the next road, multiple blood-curling shrieks erupted followed by the bellow of monstrous roars. Ulana stopped dead in her tracks and signaled her team to halt. To their right, there were three banshees, and to their left poured more husks, cannibals, and two large brutes approaching. "Spirits! I knew it!" She gripped her submachine gun and began to open fire on the banshees.

Rhodes and Torsk took to the left while Alivia stood near Ulana. The turian's attack inflicted very little damage as one of the banshees used biotics to deflect the rounds. The banshee's hollow eyes stared at the pair with its skeletal teeth. Its mutated body was difficult to look at with all the cables coming in and out of it. The banshee wailed once more and then released a large biotic sphere their way. "Look out!" Ulana pushed Alivia out of the way before diving herself to avoid the fatal hit.

Rhodes and Torsk started off dropping the easier prey: husks then working their way up to the cannibals who lingered behind next. The brutes were in the back row and were moving quickly upon them! Switching to incendiary rounds, Rhodes redirected his aim over to them and squeezed the trigger, plummeting them with much as his clip would hold. The impacted beast tried to shield itself with its mechanized large claws but the rounds still inflicted damage on its skin. Torsk flattened the remaining cannibals with his war hammer and then charged at the beaten-down brute. Noticing this, Rhodes switched it up and moved to the other brute while Torsk focused on the other. He shook his head as he glanced on. "You're insane!"

The krogan ignored the remark and struck the battered brute with his weapon. The brute roared at the krogan in annoyance and turned its mechanical turian head his way. "You're uglier than my mother was!" He swung again and this time hit the beast near its more vulnerable neck. The creature wailed before it finally succumbed to all its injuries.

Looking over his shoulder at how Ulana and Alivia were faring, Rhodes didn't like their odds. "We are going to get boxed in!"

The banshees exposed complete dental profile was haunting as one of them began to charge at Alivia and Ulana gaining ground quickly. This caused the pair to peddle back closer to where Rhodes and Torsk were to put a safer distance between the two. Alivia launched a singularity attack at the banshee, but it was quickly thwarted. "Shit! Biotics don't do anything to them!"

"Lieutenant!" Ulana yelled as she fired at the approaching banshee. "Take Rhodes and Torsk with you. Move in zig zag patten to the FOB. I'll stay so they won't pursue. We can't lead them to Anderson and the others. We don't know what kind of defenses they have in place."

Wayne became alarmed as he overheard the order being given out. "With all due respect, mam, we all need to go! You're our commanding officer. I'll hold back."

"Negative!" She growled. "I'm responsible for my team. Your orders are to report to Anderson for further assignment. Is that clear?!"

"Affirmative," Rhodes bit his lip and then moved to get Torsk away. "We gotta move out!"

Alivia felt her feet frozen in place. A wave of unease hit her. It was Akuze all over again. She couldn't let another friend lay down their life for her. "Come with us!" She nearly choked as she pleaded. The banshees' wails interrupted their dialogue and Ulana fired on one with her weapon. The creature shrieked as the rounds finally broke through its barriers and tore into its flesh. Seconds later, the banshee disintegrated into black remains. The remaining two almost hissed from some sort of emotion from the loss of their sister and homed in on the offending turian.

Ulana clenched her mandibles as she swiped out clips. She shoved Alivia to the side. "Go now!"

Rhodes motioned Alivia to follow him and Torsk as they maneuvered to a nearby alleyway, leaving the sounds of the brutes in their wake. Rhodes darted to the right and took another alleyway with her and Torsk following.

Ulana moved to the center and used her peripheral vision to keep track of the approaching enemies on both flanks. Leading them away from where her team went, she dodged back to the way they came and kept firing to draw their attention. Through all the debris, she noticed that one of the banshees was out of sight. She figured it was due to partial obstruction. Redirecting her aim, she fired on the brutes to work down their shields as her avian eyes kept on the approaching banshee. One of the brutes groaned in pain as she was doing damage. She could hear the distant sound of a banshee on the move, but its sound was drowned out by the shriek of the other. Her heart raced in her chest as she tried to glance around as much as she could forfeit from the approaching forces. If they got any closer, she would have to retreat more away. Just as she started to step back, she felt the intense pain as something sharp like a blade came through her back and out through her abdomen. She nervously glanced down to see the twisted black fingers of a banshee. Her body began to go into shock as blood poured from the hole; this caused her to drop her weapon on the ground. Blue blood trickled out of her mouth from the internal bleeding rush. She choked some as the banshee lifted her off the ground from behind. Realizing that they may try to find a way to keep her alive to turn her into one of them, Ulana fought through the approaching death and loss of blood to grab her blade she kept tucked away in her belt. Feeling the hilt between her talons, she gripped it tightly and removed it from its sheath. She could feel the creature's hot foul breath on her leathery skin from behind. Taking a deep breath, Ulana whispered a short prayer before she used the knife to cut her own throat from side to side. Realizing that she took her own life, the banshee hissed angrily before dropping the dead turian's body on the ground.

Rhodes noticed the positioned guards on top of the large concrete barrier that housed the operations base. One of the officers spotted them and flagged the others. "We've got friendlies inbound!"

Seconds later, the large doors opened to allow the three inside. Alivia paused at the doorway to glance at the way they came. She could hear the banshees wailing in the distance, but their sounds seemed to get further and further away. "What about Ulana?"

Rhodes tapped his earpiece, "We made it to the FOB. Should we send backup?" Static came through on the other end. His eyes sadly fell on the others. "She didn't make it."

Alivia wiped the tears from her eyes. "She sacrificed herself for us…."

For once, the krogan grew quiet as he mulled over the news before finally saying, "She died proud and with honor. Her ancestors would be pleased."

Admiral Anderson hurried over to greet them once the doors closed. "Glad to see you made it."

"We lost our CO, sir," Rhodes disclosed.

"This war is brutal. Shake it off, soldier. We need you in this fight. She wants you to keep going."

"The whole area is crawling with those things," Alivia gasped at what she just witnessed.

"They know we dug in here and trying to keep out our supplies. Lost lots of men that way," Anderson motioned them to follow him further within the compound. "We have more alarming news that just came in."

"We fight a Reaper next?" Rhodes lifted his eyebrow.

"The Citadel was located in our system and is just above Earth. Its position is exactly above here."

"The Citadel?" Alivia asked in confusion. "What about all the people there? What's going on?"

"Communication was severed before the relocation. The arms have been closed. We have no eyes and ears onboard. We must assume that the Reapers have a purpose for it, and we hope everyone is still alive." He led them across a lookout bridge that faced the other direction from where they came. In the distance, there was a wide beam that stemmed from the road up through the sky with no end in sight. "That's the exact spot of the Citadel. We have no idea what the beam is for. The Reapers have placed a large defensive position at every front. We are conversing with Fifth Fleet to have a synchronized attack in place. If we are to save Earth and the Citadel, then that's where we need to head."

"Tell us when we go," Torsk chomped at the bit.

Anderson held up his hand to stop him. "We have teams from all over coming here. The Krogan Clan Chief previously arrived if you want your next assignment from him. Rhodes and Lykaia, you can come with me."

"Wrex is here?" Torsk chuckled at the news. "By my krantt, I figured he got too soft for this shit. It will be nice seeing him again."

"I guess this is it then, buddy," Rhodes offered him a handshake. "It's been a pleasure working with you."

Torsk curled his upper lip at the movement. "Someone needs to protect you, squishy humans. I'll go say hi to Wrex and then come back."

Alivia smiled at this, feeling more relieved that she would still have the burly krogan by her side. "Good. See you soon." Her silver eyes then panned out to the beam in the distance once more as Rhodes and Anderson walked away. A shudder coursed down her body. Was this it? The end of the road? Her body tensed and she could feel herself becoming cold as fear rushed in.

"Siha…" Thane's voice angelically called to her.

She looked around desperately. "Thane?"

"This is not your end. Remain strong. I am with you."