They had set up a small makeshift camp in the rubble of the settlement. The captain had ordered that they set out first thing in the morning to search for survivors. Shepard was thrilled to be trusted to lead the ground team, her recent promotion had left her reeling and although she fought tooth and nail to get it, she was worried that some of the other soldiers under her thought that she was only there due to the respect that her parents garnished. She would do everything she could to prove otherwise, to show her fellow soldiers that she deserved this…
The world turned upside down as a shriek tore through the once quiet night. She could hear the screams pounding through her ears, like the deafening thunder that accompanies a roaring storm. Before she could blink, the acid was quickly working its way through her armor and the burning agony had begun to seep past the sharp focus of her adrenaline.
Shepard wasn't sure where the rest of her team was. She knew that only a few survived the initial contact, the massive quake that came before the maw's horrifying emergence from the cold ground beneath them hadn't given them much time to react and before they had realized what they faced, their small camp had been demolished. She could hear the potent acid burning through what remained of her comrades, eating away armor and flesh as if it were never there at all.
Even as she felt her skin start to dissolve beneath what remained of her armor, she quickly tried to rally what remained of her squad. Humanity had never had a true encounter with thresher maws before, they hadn't been properly trained, and her team was there for recon, not a confrontation. Shepard willed down the panic that coursed through her entire being.
The remaining soldiers began to open fire on the maw, bullets tinged off of the beast's thick hide, and Shepard could quickly see that none of the weapons they had brought with them would be able to break through the natural armor of the maw. It was then that she ordered a full retreat, staying meant losing what was left of her squad and she couldn't bear that thought.
They had not been able to plan an escape route, and hadn't gotten far before they felt the rumbling of the earth beneath them once again. The ground split right in front of the Mako, throwing it into the air. It landed on its top and spun out into a shallow ditch carved within the terrain, the metal creaked and groaned as the cargo door was wrenched off, and Shepard was thrown from the driver's seat into the back, cracking multiple ribs and snapping her ankle as she was tossed against the sides of the Mako and pinned beneath the equipment that had come loose from the walls.
She fumbled to get herself out from under the crushing weight as the now-distinct shake of the earth as the thresher maw grew closer to her position. She could see the unnaturally twisted and mangled bodies of her remaining crew, they had been thrown out of the now gaping hole in the rear of the Mako and lay strewn about the field. Shepard briefly felt her heart break for their families, for those they were leaving behind before she heard the engine of another Mako roaring to life in the distance.
Her captain had no idea what he was sending his men into. She screamed into her comm to turn around, that she was the only one left and was not worth the slaughter that would inevitably come from an attempted rescue. It only crackled in response, and for the first time in her life she begged and prayed that they would see the wreckage and turn around.
The ground beneath her stilled, and anxious anticipation washed over her. She used her rifle as leverage to shove the crate off of her and almost passed out from the pain that seared through her entire body, ripping open as many packs of medi-gel as she could and slathering it over her acid burns. She knew that it would not be able to mend her bones, but it could numb the area for a bit until she could splint her ankle, or until it wouldn't matter anymore.
She crawled out of the destroyed Mako and crouched by the tire, the sounds of heavy gunfire and smell of burning flesh finally drawing her attention to the center of the small field, where the second Mako was attempting to out maneuver the maw while ground forces whittled down its armor. They were being decimated, and Shepard knew that without help they would be just as lost as her own team had been. She started making her way down to the battle as the maw shot a large stream of acid toward the Mako, hitting it directly and knocking out all functionality, the lights flashing and engine sputtering before it died completely.
Shepard picked her way across the terrain slowly, her ankle protesting aggressively with every step. Eventually, she was able to take cover behind the broken Mako, shouting over the cries of the injured soldiers and the crackling of acid eating through metal and flesh. She was desperate to know what to do, how to help, how to save them.
She watched as one by one they fell, the ground became unsteady from the maw's constant burrowing and swallowed over half their battlefield, clearing out the bodies that lay strewn about as they disappeared beneath the crumpling earth. The acid tore its way into the muscle and bone of any soldiers that attempted to continue the assault. Until she was alone, body broken and burned and deeply exhausted. The maw eventually got its fill of carnage and left her there, barely breathing as the shock and medi-gel wore off, leaving her entire form shaking from the agony of her injuries. She didn't have enough medi-gel to cover all of the places the acid had touched her skin, had no way to neutralize the fiery pain from spreading further along her body.
She was alone and in more pain than she had ever thought possible, both squads had been entirely wiped out save for her. Shepard crawled her way into the second Mako, resolved that her death would follow shortly. That her entirely too short career would be forgotten by the history books and what had happened there that day would be labeled a tragedy. She was ready.