Ryria’s good arm snapped up and her gun took quick aim. Her eyes narrowed as her finger threatened the trigger, ready to take out Serena’s last drone during its retreat. Her mind counted the seconds down until she fired. An alarm broke her focus causing her finger to release as the drone made it out of range safely. Her head instinctively lowered to note its origins. Her omnitool. Annoyance crossed her expression before she lowered herself down into a cross legged position, slipping her gun beside her. Already Sabinus’ voice crackled into existence informing them their exercise was cut short and a few scientists need a babysitter.

At least it was something familiar to her.

Upon the order to move, she wasted little time rising up and snatching up her training weapons on her way down the exterior stairways. It was a well practiced movement to save energy as she reached the ground. She followed the others back to the compound’s start. By now, the numbness had faded away to slight tingling and the bullet’s effects were fading finally. Ryria tightened her fingers, fisting them once then opening them. Satisfied with the result, she gathered up her gear wordlessly for the mission. She even had her medical kit waiting to be brought along conveniently. Trying not to think how it got there, she was strapped into the shuttle and ready to go.

The trip wouldn’t take long. During it, Tazen began to brief them over details in regards to tactics. Being closest to the cockpit, the Asari listened intently. Her helmet covered her indifferent stare in the Salarian’s direction while he mentioned how things had gotten wrong. She slightly was surprised that the team had been left alone to scavenge when there had been Kett reports all over. However, it wasn’t her place to judge. They all needed to survive and risks were required, manpower scarce or stretched thin.

Her head shifted toward the Turian female then to the human female, her only acknowledgement of their existence in the shared space. Beyond that, the Asari said nothing. When they touched down, she stepped off like the rest. Her figure followed close, leaving the appropriate space between her teammates. Her feet kicked just enough dust with her march to keep up. When the teams separated, Ryria’s eyes turned to the Salarian. Her hip cocked so she could set her hand to rest on its curve while he gave the orders.

Following orders were easy, through Ryria couldn’t help wondering when things would go wrong. They always did in these situations and one had to ready to adapt to it. Every nerve seemed to fire off a sense of awareness, heighten her senses into a flight or fight stage. Details that only fear could locate popped out at her. However, she wasn’t ready to run just yet. Upon hearing the word support, her hand reached for her rifle and snapped outward into a ready position. Distance was the key element here which made the rifle best.

When the tactical cloaks went up, Ryria took cover behind the closest possible crate. Her figure disappeared silently to provide distant fire should it be needed.

Still nursing the bruises from her bout with Kargad, and the heavy burst of gunfire she had received from Naryxa, Firuzeh listened in silence, all former joviality gone as Tazen laid out the situation that had cut their ‘hostage rescue’ short. She didn’t know it, but her thoughts were similar to some of her new companions - she too had spent years as a researcher, and her mind flashed back to images of the Skyllian Blitz, gunfire and heavy weapons pounding away at what had been a relatively peaceful site, dead bodies strewn about, the murderous faces of enemies wanting only to kill her and her companions. Her gaze hardened, and her left hand tightened into a fist, knuckles whitening underneath her armor.

No, not today. Not if she could help it. No other researchers would have to suffer more trauma and violence, not on her watch, no more bodies to add to the list of people who could have been saved. She looked around her, taking in her teammates - she knew many of them, of course. Shocking how the universe played out, so many of her friends and crewmates from the Borealis, here, in a galaxy millions of light years from any home they had ever dreamed of. Standing next to her on a shuttle inbound to shoot at genocidal aliens. She almost cracked a smile at the hilarity of it all, when viewed as a whole. What a strange place they all lived in.

Her musings were cut short as she sensed the drop nearing, and she took a deep breath, uttering a silent prayer for a second, unnoticeable unless anyone were actively watching her at that moment, before her stance stiffened, emotions and other thoughts sliding under a secure blanket in her mind. The change was subtle physically - but she was now in the zone. Almost detached from reality, viewing the world from a cold, logical viewpoint, the only way to keep herself in check in battle. She could let herself run free perhaps, in a situation less dire, a free fire zone where the only rules were ‘if it moves, it dies’ - but now was not that time. The latent bloodlust, bubbling just beneath the surface of her mind as always, quieted slightly, and she could think, process the world objectively and emotionlessly.

She checked the selector on her weapon, cybernetic arm hefting the bulky Revenant with ease, and set it to fully automatic fire, though the Kett would not feel the weapon’s bite, not yet.

As they neared, the shuttle lowering to the ground to let them disembark, she jumped off with the rest of the team, taking a deep breath, scanning the situation for targets. Her priority would be the Fiend - then the Anointed. Those team members with more precise weaponry could focus on the smaller targets, better suited to the accurate death stroke of a sniper’s bullet, her own guns would be focused on the big one, the imminent threat if it got too close. She could tell, just from looking, that for her or the Krogan to near melee distance with the beast - at least, lest it was weakened - would be tantamount to suicide, and she coldly set her weapon to incendiaries. The Harpoon rounds she had favored in the Milky Way had not made the transition to this new galaxy, but fire would do the job all the same. Everything could burn if it got hot enough.

The mask slipped a hair, and she grinned, advancing quietly as ordered, but relishing the moment that she knew would come. “My primary target is the Fiend, anybody with precision weaponry can focus on the softer targets. Anybody else with heavy ordnance, that Fiend needs to go down fast - I don’t know if Kargad or myself stand even a faint chance until that thing has gained a few pounds in tungsten. The Anointed are a threat - but we can take cover from their weapons. A beast that big isn’t going to care about cover, if it gets close to us without eating metal, I’ll see you all in heaven.” She turned to the side, taking in her teammate’s equipment again - surprised at the Mattock Kargad carried, she would have figured the krogan would have gone for a shotgun, or something… beefier. But it was no matter, and she turned back to focus on the impending fight, responding to Naryxa, “How long can your barrier hold?”

Serena found the exercise exasperating and educational. Exasperating because Kargard did exactly what she told him not to and expected him to do, and charged forward like..well, like a krogan, and educational because she now knew she'd have to update Del's evasion protocols. He shouldn't have been almost entirely taken down by one sniper, biotics or no. It was fortunate that the exercise had ended when it did, otherwise the attacking team would have lost. With two members down and the defensive team already well set up, it wouldn't have been pretty. Unfortunately, the exercise ended because researchers were under attack and desperately needed help.

She had switched out her weapons in seconds, and Del had dumped all of his nonlethal rounds immediately. She had gone over all of her equipment while Sabinius had given them the briefing, reassuring herself. It was fairly standard. The Kett were testing their newfound strength, and they needed to prove that they weren't going to give in easily this time. This time would be different. This time, they were settled in, the planet was hospitable to them too, and they were prepared to retaliate.

Her helmet was securely on her head and she was sitting, hands clasped together, quietly praying in latin as they drew ever closer to the site. She prayed for their protection, the protection of the scientists, the souls of the scientists already lost, and the souls of the Kett about to be killed. She didn't know if they knew what they were doing, if they regretted it, or if they enjoyed what they were doing. She did know that they deserved her prayers as much as they deserved their deaths.

As they landed she felt the usual fear rising up within her, the choking panic and terror at what was going to come next. She took a deep breath, calming herself. She had done this before, and she will do it again. Another deep breath as she disembarked from the shuttle, hands briefly clenching on her valkyrie, and she was okay. She could still feel it, swirling beneath the surface, but she had it under control. It wouldn't weaken her this mission.

She nodded as Tazen explained the plan. "Sarah will go up, cloaked, to give us an overview. She'll be able to tag targets so you guys can move around them appropriately." The small drone flashed its acknowledgement once, cloaked, and then flew up into the sky. Once it was an appropriate height to see everything, Sarah stopped and started tagging targets to appear on the extraction team's HUD. The small drone was practically invisible against the sky, a tiny warp only noticeable if you looked straight up and straight at it. Settling in across from Ryria, Serena spoke quietly into the Asari's personal comms. "If things go south and we have to start supporting directly, I'll have to move up. All of my things don't have enough range. I'll leave one of Del behind to cover your six, and alert you if a Wraith slips behind you. Sound good?"

Clyff, to be entirely honest, wasn’t used to drills. Not to say he’d never participated in them, but they never were like this. It was awkward, slapdash, and he believed that was the point. More so, he’d never worked with such a diverse group before. They all had skills that he didn’t even come close to possessing. That, along with being a mixture of aliens that he never worked with—well, he was a bit off his game.

The entire exercise ended abruptly before he actually got to shoot anyone. He’d laid down suppression fire, but what fun was that? But apparently, the Kit-Kat… Kett-Kats(?) had decided to raid defenseless scientists. Real classy, aliens. They were told to switch out their equipment, and Clyff may have let out a whistle of relief. These fake guns were way too light and he felt like he was one broad gesture away from throwing them halfway across the room. If he was lucky, it would have been at an opponent’s face. If he was unlucky, it would have been into an opponent’s open arms where they could have had the honor of shooting him with his own gun. Not a lot in war was truly disgraceful, but that one definitely would have taken the crown, cake, and the whole shebang.

On the ride over, the little salarian, Something Something—he really needed to learn names—stated their mission objectives and divided the teams accordingly based on function. Clyff was not surprised he was lumped into the “go shoot things dead” group. It would be strange if he wasn’t. Yet, as Sabrinaus spoke, he wondered if the Kett-Kats (he was aware they were just the Kett, but the name made him chuckle) always brought this sort of force with them. This seemed like a basic mission, for the enemy anyway, and that seemed little a lot of firepower. Maybe they just had that much at their disposal. He made a note to ask Anjor about that later. If this was their normal gaggle of minions, he’d hate to see their elite teams. No. Scratch that, he’d love to see their elite teams and feed them a lot of hot, burning bullets.

Touching down, Clyff pulled out his shotgun and used their moment of silence to activate his incendiary rounds. If they were going after the big ones first, he really needed all the firepower he could get. He then queued up his abilities that would be best for this fight.

One of his previous teammates spoke. He gave her a cursory glance. ”Great pep talk. A plus. I feel so ready to take on anything now.” His voice was flat. ”Though,” he looked over at the Krogan, Krogangrad. That was it, he was going to spend this evening writing their names down five times each. "A fiend, huh?” he asked, very rhetorically. “Didn’t realize your mom was here.”

It took a few moments, after breaking through into the stinging daylight of consciousness again, for Kargad’s head to stop ringing like a bell. It took a few moments more for him to stop laughing about it.

It wasn’t short, and sportive, either: he came shooting back into the waking world with a belly-full of mirth, a laughter which shook him like a mountain on a fault line, so hard and deep that he felt his core throb almost as hard as his jaw was. It only seceded when he realised the atmosphere about him had grown suddenly dire. Playtime, it seemed, was over.
As they rushed to exchange their gear- Kargad said a tearful goodbye to a shotgun he never made good use of, and promised someday to rectify that- he probed his lower jaw absently, chasing the taste of alkaline and copper. A tooth on a thread – cracked down to the root.
”Damn,” he murmured, with weight. He couldn’t help but smile to himself. He spat a molar into the sand just before they boarded the shuttle – that one would take the best part of a month to take root again.

He sat himself down across from Firu, and smiled bloodily, with surprising cheer, before the briefing properly began. He was impressed. No – he was delighted.
“You hit like a freighter being driven by a truck,” he told her, quietly and in earnest. It made him itch beneath the plates. He could feel the stuff of Tuchanka- those small specks of irradiated char, the colour of earth, and stone, and blood- broiling in his veins. Kargad liked humans, but realised he had underestimated them. He’d expected them to be brutal, and fierce… but squishy. He’d never been so glad to be wrong. He liked this one.
“We’re gonna have to go toe-to-toe again – you’re going to have to realign my jaw.”

--

He grew a little more reserved when he heard tell of the stakes, and felt the disapproval of some select teammates as it went on. Here they were, in what was effectively a real hostage situation, and they all thought he’d made an ass of himself. Well, maybe he had.
He wrung his hands quietly, and tensed his jaw – then winced and promptly stopped.
What had happened here was, he felt, a fatal misunderstanding of cultures. Krogan were not brutal savages, contrary to popular belief. They bled, they loved, they thought. But they were tribal. What had happened here was, for everybody else, an example of his combat ethic – but to him, in that moment, it had been a clan bonding experience. He had been trying to gauge their worth, and show his own, in his little... Krogan way. Appear strong, reliable, and prove that he thought the same of them. Of course he was more responsible in the field – he was still alive, wasn’t he?

He caught Naryxa’s side-eye, and visibly shrank. Waved at her nervously, and tried to smile apologetically, although there were few smiles a Krogan could offer that didn’t seem tainted with menace. She wasn’t the first Asari to judge him – Revixtia's family had never approved - but he couldn’t help but catch his daughters in her face.
”Ah, shit, is that racist? Sorry girls.”
Would they have been embarrassed? Dad, acting up at an Asari function, again?
He turned mutely to his faith. Clasped his hands together, and not unlike Firu, murmured a little prayer.

It brought him strength in small degrees of indignation. At first he thought it was the Krogan in him, flaring up as it often did. But no – this was unmistakably his wife. He heard her voice, clear and loud and angry.
”Who gives a fuck what they think?”
And she was right, of course. She was always right. They thought he was just another reckless Krogan. Good to throw at an enemy now and judge later. But was he? Did it even matter?
There were no Krogan out here, no Asari, no Humans. Not the way he saw it. This was somewhere strange, and new, and brilliant – here they were all just denizens of the Milky Way. Truer than it ever was before, they were all expressions of the same cosmic thought.

--

On the ground, Kargad was quick to hang his hammer at his hump. He would do it right, this time.
“That Fiend needs to go down fast - I don’t know if Kargad or myself stand even a faint chance until that thing has gained a few pounds in tungsten… if it gets close to us without eating metal, I’ll see you all in heaven.”
“If that thing gets close to us without eating metal, we’ll ride it all the way there,” Kargad took up his mattock. Then he caught Firu’s glance, and flushed with an instant of embarrassment. Felt the heat rise beneath his armour. He wasn’t making a tonne of great first impressions today.
“I- what? It’s not the gun, it’s what you… let’s just kill this thing,” he grumbled.
“Didn’t realize your mom was here.”
Scratch all that stuff about being impressed by humans.
The Krogan laughed lowly, and shouldered his rifle. He grinned at Clyff on just the one side of his face: “You kidding? My mom’s way scarier,” he snorted, “She could bench press that thing.”

The training exercise was a success even if it was cut short by Tannyx. Some sort of situation at Site One. Shunji raced to the lockers and quickly changed the weapons. It was good to be carrying actual weapons again. He boarded the shuttle as it left the training area, taking all of them to Site One. Tazen was the first one to talk about the situation as Shunji checked on his shotgun. A research team got themselves in trouble with the Kett and we must save them. Simple enough. As the other members of the team were tasked with certain objectives, Shunji and everyone else (that wasn’t assigned a task) were ordered to wait until they heard gunshots.

Waiting for the order was boring as Shunji barely knew the other members. So, he did what he thought was productive and started to look at his weapon once more. While the krogan and the other human were having a conversation, it reminded of the times spent with Quintis. Shunji still missed the loveable turian bastard. He looked down at his shotgun, trying to think about the upcoming battle instead of his only friend from the Milky Way galaxy. It didn't work.

Shunji kept on checking his weapon, remembering the good times before they made it to Andromeda.

Before leaving behind everything for Andromeda, Shunji and many other volunteers for the Initiative celebrated their last moments in the Milky Way at the Earth’s moon, Luna. Of course, that was after the epic speech given by Jien Garson. It was good enough that everyone cheered and decided to party until it was time. Thousands of people filled the convention center to drink, sing, dance, whatever was going on within the floor. Shunji got a message that Quintis needed to grab something right after the speech and to meet him at the bar.

It was filled with dozens of people that were happy to be there. He turned around to see a man saying his goodbyes to his twin. That immediately caused Shunji to think of his own family. He tried to say goodbye to his mother in person, but she wanted nothing to do with him. Instead, he wrote a long letter to her and any remaining siblings. And sent it before leaving Earth forever. Shunji really wanted to see his mother one last time, but she still hatred him for what happened years ago. “A damn shame” he thought to himself before taking a shot with a sad look.

“Why the sad face?” a familiar voice asked.

It was none other than Quintis, his only friend going with him on this crazy adventure. He approached the table and sat down, holding to a mysterious box. Immediately, his frown was replaced with a smile as Shunji saw his good old friend. “I was starting to worry that you got lost while looking for the bathroom.” he sarcastically replied, attempting to hide his true reason behind the sad look.

“Thankfully, I found it.” he responded, “Now, let’s start celebrating! The night has barely begun!”

About a half-hour later, both friends started talking about their new life in Andromeda at the open-bar. The bartender finished refilling their drinks before making more drinks for another group. Both men were talking about picking one of seven golden worlds to settle. Sertius Quintis picked out Habitat 5 since it reminded him of Palaven’s largest moon, Menae. However, Yanagita Shunji selected Habitat 2 because of the potential job opportunities that the planet offered with its high amount of minerals.

“Didn’t you hear what they said about Habitat 2? High amounts of minerals and resources. It will guarantee job security until we drop dead.” Shunji proclaimed to his turian friend. Quintis laughed at his friend’s attempt at making Habitat 2 sound perfect.

“Yeah, if you want to be miners.” Quintis pointed out, “Plus, I heard some krogans were interested in it also. If you still remember your history class, krogans still hate turians because of the genophage. And it’s probably filled with sand. I hate sand.”

Yanagita wrapped his arm around Quintis without care and raised his drink. “We survived battles against countless enemies and the geth attack on the Citadel. Hell, we almost died at the Citadel. Habitat 2 will be a cakewalk. If one krogan looks at you wrong, I will personally headbutt them in your honor!”

“Your head will crack open.” Quintis interrupted.

“You know what I meant.” Yanagita said sincerely, “I will be standing by your side. No matter what.”

Quintis raised his drink and smiled, “That sounds like a good toast.” Yanagita agreed and quickly finished up his drink before raising it.

“Focus on the mission.” Shunji quietly told himself to stop thinking about that night. It was one of the best moments in his life, but he didn’t want to be reminded it at all. Especially Quintis. Suddenly, he felt some tears rolling down his face and quickly turned away from the others. Thankfully, his helmet was covering his face; but, he still turned away because he felt embarrassed. After a moment of breathing in and out, he was ready for the mission. Shunji turned to Sabinius and asked, “Any word on Tazen’ team? I am itching to kill some Kett today.”

---

The advance through Site 1 was going well for Fireteam 2, with the help of Ryria and Serena - and the information provided by the latter’s drone - they had managed to elude several of the Kett’s forces patrolling through the failed outpost in search of the surviving researchers. Stopping to catch his breath, Tazen took the opportunity to look at the map display of Site 1. They had made good progress so far, but they were reaching a point where they’d be unable to continue circling through the failed outpost’s outskirt and would need to penetrate into the outpost itself. This, of course, meant that it was merely a matter of time for the Kett to find them, ideally that’d happen after they had located and extracted the scientist but Tazen wasn’t one to let such things to mere chance.

“Noratus,” said Tazen into the team comms. “I was checking the layout of Site 1, if we want to make progress in finding the scientists we need to head deeper into the area, going around the outskirts is no longer viable.” He continued speaking to his turian comrade, “It’d be for the best if we go ahead of the group and signal Fireteam 1 to engage the Kett forces, otherwise I’m afraid that we might be caught before we’ve rescued the scientists trapped in the building. What do you think?” He finished speaking, waiting for Dex’s reply to his idea.

Dex was decidedly disappointed at the training event coming to an end so abruptly, but what she saw was telling enough of her teammates. She felt they weren’t ready to take on anything real. But working on infiltrating Site 1 was fine enough for her, away from the front lines of the fighting where things would definitely become chaotic. Confident in her own skills to see through the mission.

Had her and Haze stuck together they could have used the massive distraction Firu and Kargad created to slip inside. Sadly it wasn’t meant to be.

Dex pulled up a map from where they were crouched. “If they were ambushed by the Kett, they’d be exactly where they were working. The labs are over here.” She pointed to the map*, “Thankfully for us there’s a few entrances to pick from. Unfortunately according to Serena’s drone there’s Kett crawling all over the place.”

“We need to distract them, something big to pull the kett away to fight team 1.” Dex suggested to Tazen. “I’ve been trying to pick up on any communications from the scientists but their radio silence is across the entire board.”

“Makes sense, we still don't know the full extent of the Kett’s capabilities so it'd stand to reason that the scientists would try and remain radio silent.” Spoke the Salarian in response to what Dex had said. “As for your suggestion, I am of the same mind.” He said, stopping for a second to think what'd be the best way for them to proceed.

“Alright Noratus, I've got an idea.” Tazen said after a few seconds of silence, “You and me will proceed deeper into Site 1 while the rest of Team 2 stays behind, once we are deep enough we will contact Team 1 and give them the go ahead to engage the Kett, at the same time, we’ll try and assert whether or not the scientists locked themselves in the labs.” He spoke, turning to look at the rest of Team 2 and giving them the signal to stay put before he turned to look at Dex, “Ready to move?”

Dex activated her cloak over the coms she confirmed. “Let’s go, see you guys on the other side.”

She waved a cloaked hand to Haze, Serena and Ryria.

The pair of former spies took off at a fast run heading deeper into Site 1. They skirted behind storage containers, pausing to let patrols walk by. Dex peeked above them, noting a few Kett were crouched down by a door pointing at it. Over the coms she whispered, “I think I know where our scientists are.”

“I have an idea of what to do for a distraction.”

She beckoned for Tazen to follow her, she snuck off away from the Kett to a separate building. Out of sight of the Kett she opened her omni-tool. Picking from a generic list of SOS signals, she opened an unsecured network.

“I’m going to create a fake emergency call out, ping the Kett and pull them over here. You set an EMP to knock their technology around some, give the go ahead for the attack. We sneak back and remove the remaining Kett ourselves.” She suggested, looking over her shoulder. “If you don’t have a grenade we can make one.”

She took a second to realize the absurdity of working with Tazen. She had few rules set for herself and one of them was never to fuck around with anyone from STG. There was no telling signs with them, you could never trust nor figure out what they were really up to. Security airtight and all the resources to run you into the ground. It frustrated Dex quite often while she worked at Lorthan Brokerage. Any sign of STG and she dropped the job faster than a set of hot rocks, scrubbing her involvement from it completely.

“You know Tazen, I’m glad we never met until we were in another galaxy. I don’t know what you specialized in STG whether that was intergalactic missions or toppling organizations on behalf of Sur’kesh but I think I’d be fucked if I stumbled on you.” She commented, pulling up some borrowed audio from a vid.

Tazen chuckled at Dex’s comments, “Probably, STG is notorious for wanting to keep its business hush hush after all.” Said the Salarian, shaking his head slightly with mirth while he prepared the EMP with scavenged material from the building. “For the record, feeling’s mutual. I’m glad we met here instead of running into each other mid-mission, I get the feeling that I wouldn’t walk out unscathed if we were to fight.” He said, finishing the EMP that he had been constructing.

“You give me way too much credit, sir. I’m not much for close combat, the only way I get out of close quarters is hitting hard and hitting once. If I had it my way, most people I fight wouldn’t see me.” Dex admitted, adding the final touches on the SOS. “I’m suited better behind a scope.”

“And I think you give yourself too little credit Noratus,” He chuckled, shaking his head slightly. “Anyway, EMP is constructed but don’t send the fake SOS signal yet, I want to leave a surprise for when the Kett bastards come towards us.” Said Tazen as he moved towards the door they had used, planting a tripmine on its frame.

“Done, that way the bastards will hurt when they come here.” Finished the Salarian before he returned to Dex’s side, “You know, this feels kinda nostalgic, doesn’t it? Luring enemies into a trap with a fake signal, setting traps and all that stuff. Honestly, I thought I had left all that behind in the Milky Way.” Said the Salarian, letting out a chuckle once more while shaking his head.

“Anyway, I’m ready when you are.” He said, his hand hovering over his omnitool ready to detonate the EMP as soon as the Kett had entered the building they were on “We’ll probably need to dig in here and things might get ugly.” Commented Tazen, a grimace on his face “Well, here goes nothing.” He muttered quietly as he waited for Dex to send the fake SOS.

Dex nodded, “Nostalgic would imply we actually enjoyed it.” She said matter-of-factly, no real discernable bitterness. “Okay, sending SOS Signal in three...two… one.”

“I suppose that is true.” Noted Tazen in response to Dex’s comment, “I guess it’s more appropriate to say that it feel all too familiar.” He said, nodding when Dex mentioned that she as sending the SOS signal.

The signal boosted by an unsecured network went out locally, even pinging on Dex and Tazen’s omnitools. It was responded to with an equally fake Initiative response. It had some key differences in wording and the frequency was similar. To an untrained eye it would have been believable. To Dex it raised red flags. She shivered, how many SOS calls have the Kett picked up from the Initiative? Another example of their brutal efficiency routing an enemy, severing emergency efforts.

“They’re on their way. Let’s go.” Dex said.

They snuck away out of the radius of the EMP watching for the Kett to approach. After a few moments, they arrived in a group of five Chosen. She watched through the scope of her Viper, signalling Tazen to detonate the EMP.

A cold chill went down Tazen’s spine as he processed the fact that the Kett had responded to their fake SOS with what could pass as a response from another Initiative team, to a trained agent like him and Dex it was easy to spot the signs that pointed to the signal being fake. How many of their people had been captured due to that trick? And if they could easily send a response to an SOS, that meant that they’d be able to fake an Initiative SOS of their own easily enough.

Shaking his head to snap out of his revelry, Tazen noticed that Dex had gotten ahead of him and hurried to catch up to her, “Apologies for the delay, was caught by a….decidedly unpleasant revelation.” Said the Salarian as he caught his breath. He nodded when Dex told him to detonate the EMP, but waited a second for the Kett to activate his trip mine before he set off the EMP.

“Fireteam 1, this is Tazen, you are free to engage the Kett forces on Site 1!” He broadcasted to the secure comm frequency of Fireteam 1, making sure everyone would hear the order. “Fireteam 2, you are cleared to advance, go go go!” He spoke after a second, having switched to the comm channel of Fireteam 2. “Fireteam 1 has been given the go ahead to engage the Kett forces and I’ve given the rest of Fireteam 2 the order to advance.” Said Tazen as he pulled his Hornet SMG.

“With our objective completed, I say we punch through the disorganized Kett forces and rendezvous with the rest of Fireteam 2, your thoughts Dex?” He asked her, although it was easy to notice that Tazen was preoccupied. Not so much due to the prospect of fighting against the Kett, but more due to their ability to mimic Initiative signals so easily.

Eyes on the Kett, the detonated EMP knocked their shields out Dex answered, “Way ahead of you, sir.” Punctuating her answer with three consecutive shots against a Chosen, one pierced their abdomen, their chest and finally a headshot. The Chosen crumpled. Her Viper ejected the thermal clip in a quick vent of steam. Dex reloaded a new clip.

“Next.”

Tazen nodded in response to Dex’s words, aiming down the sights towards where the Kett forces where. However instead of shooting his gun the Salarian took a small disk that was maglocked to his hip and threw it towards the Kett, a small turret popping into existence where the disc had landed on the ground. “Figured a bit of extra gunpower wouldn’t be a bad thing.” Said the Salarian before Dex said anything while taking aim with his Hornet and hitting a Chosen squarely in the chest, the Kett soldier crumpling to the ground as the life left him.

“Say Noratus.” Said Tazen as he aimed at another Kett, letting out a barrage of gunfire that unfortunately missed its mark, “How do you figure the Kett managed to get their hands on the message they sent. It’s a standard Initiative response, not something kept terribly secret, but...well, the implications disturb me slightly.” He asked the Turian, biting his lip slightly as he took another shot at another Chosen.

Dex took aim once more, answering Tazen, “Scavenging. It wasn't a perfect replication. My first impression is assuming they have come across our own emergency efforts, targeting the party in danger and then later ambushing the rescuers. It's an insidious tactic. I want to bring the issue to the Initiative’s intelligence teams and report what we saw here today. This kind of breach is affecting us directly but also… those that are on their own.” She said, thinking of the exiles. “The Kett see us exiled or not, to them it's us doing their job for them. Dividing skilled forces then isolating them.”

She took down a third, taking cover - the Kett firing back at their hiding spot.

“Yes, we’ll need to rework out our codes and channels to make sure that the Kett forces don’t have a backdoor into our networks.” Said Tazen, taking one last shot at the Chosen before he had to replace the thermal clip on his SMG. “My main concern is precisely how they obtained the information. We know that they’ve captured APEX teams before, so I’m worried that someone might have talked under torture.” He mentioned as he finished loading the new thermal clip, popping from cover to take another shot at a Chosen.

“This is a mess, we’ll probably need to start ordering everyone to destroy their omnitools or something if it seems like they’ll be captured.” Tazen mumbled to himself, his mind already trying to patch the security leak.

Dex squinted at him, what exactly was he implying? That someone from the Milkyway wanted to sell them out to the Kett? She scoffed.

The situation with the Exiles also concerned him, but in an entirely different way than it seemed to do for Dex so he opted to keep his mouth shut and not bring them up into the discussion. His thought train was briefly interrupted by a small explosion as his turret was finally destroyed by the remaining Chosen left. “Only one more left, then we can rendezvous with the rest of Fireteam 2.” He said as a shot from the remaining Kett whizzed past him, leaning for a brief second from cover to lay suppressive fire.

Dex opened her omnitool, readying an Incinerate. “Take the shot, sir.” She peeked over the cover then threw the particle fire, it exploded across the Chosen’s chest.

Tazen nodded in response to Dex’s words, peeking from cover once the Incinerate made contact with the Kett. It was easy enough to hit the disoriented Chosen, three rounds hitting him square in the chest and immediately killing the last Kett soldier.

“We are done now, good job Noratus. Shall we head back and rendezvous with the rest of Fireteam 2?”

She nodded, initializing her cloak once more. “Yes, sir.

This wasn't neither the time nor place for her to question or grow suspicious of her superior officer. She believed they were on the same page but could she trust him to not hold her sympathies with the exiles against her? They were cut from a similar cloth, she had no doubts Tazen would remember this conversation. Suddenly she felt like she had been too chatty.

Contacting Fireteam 2 she went for a lighter tone then how she felt, “On our way back, hope you lot didn't miss us too much.”

Khosin hadn't done much during the brief duration of the exercise, too busy to pick the best target for him to tackle on to be bale to take any action before the training bout was cancelled due to the situation on Site 1. All in all, that fact didn't bother him much, and any annoyance that he could have felt at the cancellation of the exercise was soon forgotten when Tazen told them the exact situation that had happened on Site 1. As the shuttle made its way towards Site 1 dark thoughts began bubbling up to the surface of Khosin's mind, his time working with the Hegemony's military, raiding a base of insurgents against the Hegemony, and other darker memories came to the fore with such intensity that he only half-heard Tazen's plan.

He breather deeply, trying to calm his thoughts "That's in the past, there's no use relieving those memories." He thought internally, his hands shaking slightly as he thought to dispel the grip that his old memories had on his mind "You aren't the same as you were before, focus on the present." His train of thoughts continued, his hands clenching into fists "Focus on the mission, rescue the researchers...no matter the cost to yourself. It's the least you can do." He focused on that last idea, repeating it in his mind over and over like a mantra. He had nothing else left except ensuring that the Initiative was a success, he had known that fact since he had signed up back in the Milky Way and all the events that had transpired since their arrival to Heleus had only solidified that notion on his mind. His little inner mantra was interrupted when he felt the shuttle lowering down and the door opening so that he and the rest of Fireteam Echo could disembark.

Letting out the breath that he had been holding, Khosin slid his helm over his head before he left the shuttle and joined Sabinius and the rest of the team that'd act as a distraction. He nodded in agreement at Firu's words, a small chuckle escaping from his lips at what Clyff and Kargad had said. “Seems you’ll get your wish soon Yanagita.” Said the Batarian in response to what the human male had said as he noticed the telltale beep of a sent message on his omnitool. He didn’t need to play the message to guess it’s contents, Tazen had mentioned that if they were contacted it meant that they were free to engage the Kett forces present on Site 1. Activating his tech-armor, Khosin spared not a single second to tell everyone else of his plan before he launched himself straight into one of the Kett’s Chosen with a biotic charge, immediately pulling his Raider shotgun to finish his staggered foe before turning to face the remaining Kett forces converging on him. An all-too savage grin spreading across his face as he braced himself for the fight to come, shots erupting from his shotgun as he engaged the Kett forces approaching him directly.

"I can spot the wraiths moving, and I'll keep those of you who are calling on the armoured heavies under barrier until we can push forward enough to start laying down the law." Naryxa offered in response. It was one worry off of the mind, at least. Sabinus hated dealing with cloaked enemies on principle. He nodded.

”Understood. Watch our flanks and we’ll keep the big ugly ones off of you.” the turian replied. Firu was the next to speak.

“My primary target is the Fiend, anybody with precision weaponry can focus on the softer targets. Anybody else with heavy ordnance, that Fiend needs to go down fast - I don’t know if Kargad or myself stand even a faint chance until that thing has gained a few pounds in tungsten. The Anointed are a threat - but we can take cover from their weapons. A beast that big isn’t going to care about cover, if it gets close to us without eating metal, I’ll see you all in heaven.”

”I don’t know if you remember much from the intelligence briefings, but make sure you two keep your distance. I need you two to keep it busy and away from the buildings, if it follows anyone indoors they’re in trouble. Also, don’t get tunnel vision. You and Kargad already demonstrated that you focus disproportionately on the major threat at the expense of everything else; I don’t want either of you taking a hit because something was beneath your notice. Bullets are faster than the Fiend.” Sabinus instructed, firmly but note with the intention of scolding. Everyone was rusty, not stupid. They’d figure it out.

Letting the team banter, Sabinus kept an eye on the situation, trying to see if he could make out any of Team 2’s cloaked members. They were doing a fine enough job that they largely escaped notice, and he was actively searching for them. The Kett seemed none the wiser. Shunji sidled up to Sabinus, keeping his voice down.

“Any word on Tazen’ team? I am itching to kill some Kett today.” The human asked. Sabinus gestured in the general direction he thought he saw movement or an errand bit of dust that was kicked up by moving feet. “They’re still doing their reconnaissance, which isn’t something Tazen likes to rush. It’s probably the reason he’s going to live to the ripe old age of 40.” The turian replied, a slight grin crossing his avian-esque façade. ”Don’t worry. It’s an all you can kill buffet down there, just enjoy the downtime before we get to test your cardio in a live-fire exercise. Way I’ve heard it, there’s no shortage of Kett on Eos. We’re going to be busy the next few days, I believe.”

A few moments, Tazen’s cue came over their omnitools; “Fireteam 1, this is Tazen; you are free to engage the Kett forces on Site 1!” Almost immediately, Khosin charged in without walking for orders, and up until then, he’d been silent. It wasn’t the time to address that now, but the batarian would need to have a little chat with him when this was done and dusted.

”Alright Fireteam 1, let’s give those ugly bastards the good Milky Way welcome. Go go go!” Sabinus shouted, getting to his feet with practiced athletics, going from a prone position to a full sprint in a smooth, almost singular motion, his Halberd in hand. As he crested the ridge, Sabinus engaged his jump jets, giving him propulsion that took him high above the nearest buildings. Fortunately, he’d had a fair deal of practice with the jump jets during his training and felt pretty comfortable both judging his trajectory and manipulating the weapon, so it wasn’t too dissimilar to hitting a moving target. Only in this particular instance, he was the moving target.

A trio of clustered Kett infantry caught sight of him, and lining up the optics on his visor, he let out a trio of 5-round bursts that bored towards the enemy; while not all shots met their targets, a number had dug into the exposed flesh of at least two of the Kett as Sabinus’ descent towards one of the central structures by the ridge and large rings was closing in fast. He hit the roof with a roll, the pre-fabricated structure not reacting to the heavily armoured turian’s impact, and Sabinus came out into a kneeling position, his rifle was shouldered and already acquiring the infantry he’d already engaged. Now that he was in a commanding shooting position, the turian quickly sighted in his crosshairs and let off snippy single shots, three per target roughly around central mass. The Kett dropped hard, and Sabinus repositioned himself so he wasn’t in the same line of sight.

Pulling out the module for the barricade, the turian slapped it down into the ground and it quickly assembled into a waist-high energy barrier that worked similarly in principle to shielding found on a starship. Taking cover quickly, Sabinus pulled back the thermal clip cover and extracted the mostly-spent clip, his long fingers producing another from a compartment in his armour and sliding it into the receiver, his thumb hitting the release as it was cleared to have the coolant flush through the weapon’s intricate framework.

A series of intense impacts bit into the barrier behind him, prompting an unconcerned harmonized grunt from Sabinus’ subvocals. Activating the incendiary rounds, Sabinus also hit the command on his omnitool to activate turbocharge, connecting the weapon’s ventilation to his armour, which provided its own coolant to increase the weapon’s rate of fire and reduced the heat stress on the thermal clip. Once an icon on his visor flashed green telling him that the function successfully activated, he found his way to his feet and leaned into his weapon, taking in the Anointed that had begun to open fire with its heavy cannon and Sabinus held down the trigger, bracing for the recoil.

The Kett heavy began taking hits, the burning rounds splashing in inflamed sparks across its shielding as it resisted the brunt of the fire, but soon the shields were giving way as Sabinus was down to ¼ of his clip and the connection to the suit as severed, leaving the gun on its own once more. Soon the rounds began to punch through and across the Kett’s bony, carapace like body, the incendiary rounds began to burn through the armour and flesh, igniting now it was coming into contact with organic tissue. The Anointed struggled in vain to extinguish its immolation, and soon, either from shock or having been suffocated out as the flames consumed the oxygen around its head, the enemy collapsed in a burning heap.

”Three grunts and a heavy down. Continuing engagement.” he spoke over comms, keeping the team in the loop as the barrier began to shut down and he relocated to the adjacent structure with another jump pack leap as tracers tried to intersect with him.

And just like that, the training exercise was over. Hazan picked himself up off the sand, groaning a little and rubbing a talon over where the Avenger round had impacted his stomach. Ryria was a good shot, far better than he'd expected out of the doctor that had woken him out of cryo. But all things considered, she would be a valuable addition to the team, especially since Firu wasn't exactly a doctor to begin with, just horribly obsessed with cybernetics. The 'simulation' had gone...well, to say it had gone smoothly was an exaggeration, really. The other members of the Borealis crew had clicked together like the days of old, but with the addition of new faces and personalities, it felt like a whole new ship and a whole new crew again. Granted, they were in an entirely new galaxy with their fair share of new problems. It didn't change the fact that he was now doing military stuff again and it felt really weird.

The turian dropped off his training gear and picked up his sniper rifle, shotgun and sidearm as the platoon moved over to their transports. Within moments, they were away to Site 1, a briefing being conducted by their leader during the flight. A bunch of Initiative squints had gotten cornered and trapped by the Kett at the site during a salvage mission, and already command had a plan to rescue them. Splitting up the heavy hitters from the lightweights, creating a diversion while the stealthy types got the scientists out unscathed sounded pretty, no, very typical for someone that came out of the STG. A (mostly) foolproof plan that had little in the way of complicated mechanics or other dumb things that could potentially screw up an op. Just like a salarian's mind.

Hazan stowed his thoughts and checked and rechecked his Viper all through the short hop from their base to Site 2, their staging ground, and had it unfurled and ready as soon as boots were on the sand. His job was to follow the other recon specialists to wheel around Site 1's perimeter, with Serena and Ryria at their backs for fire support in case things got ugly. His movements became automatic as he followed the squad, his mind drifting to contemplate other things, like the Kett. What were these... Kett? He'd gotten his first glimpses as pictures taken by settlers on Eos and they didn't look as tough as they were. Humanoid, weird green features, intense fanatical disposition towards anything that wasn't a kett. They had monsters too, weird things that could turn invisible at the blink of an eye and giant brutes that were bigger than even krogan. Against an organised military force like APEX, Hazan could understand their odds. He could only imagine what the initial colonists had gone through before they'd come along.

As the squad approached the rear of a particularly large lab building, Tazen stopped them. Hazan kept back but watched as the salarian mumbled something over to Dex, then turned to face them. Their orders were simple: stay put while he and Dex moved on ahead to canvas the base and figure out where the scientists were. Once done, they were going to finagle some sort of distraction to bring in Team 1 to give them enough cover to move in to secure their targets. Another typical STG plan, one he didn't approve of. He knew Dex well enough that she didn't approve of the STG either, but rules were rules and the military was the military. He could only grit his teeth (metaphorically) and allow his displeasure to rumble through his sub-vocals as they left. Saddled with Serena and Ryria, it felt like escort duty for VIPs all over again. Except his VIPs also carried guns. And Serena had her drones. And Ryria had her biotics. Fair enough, he figured.

Hazan stowed his displeasure and shouldered his rifle, moving just slightly ahead to take cover behind a rock outcropping, slowly scanning over the site. Kett were all over the place, his HUD displaying the enemies marked by Serena's drone in red squares. Team 1's blue triangles were further away, stationary as they waited for his team to finish up whatever it was they were doing. Suddenly his omnitool pinged with a general SOS, which made him raise an eye ridge. The scientists were still broadcasting? Then his attention turned back to the site as a group of five...Chosen, were they called? Chosen, that was it. A bunch of them grouped up and moved towards where the signal came from, while the blue squares that represented Tazen and Dex moved away. The scout put two and two together and realised that the SOS was most likely generated by Dex and used as a trap. His suspicions were confirmed when, not a few moments later, he felt rather than heard the distinctive electronic burst of an EMP through the slight fizzling of his shields, followed closely by gunfire from just ahead of him, while Team 1's triangles moved forward and gunfire began erupting from their positions as they moved to engage the main force. He raised a talon to his visor as he tracked the movements of the hostiles ahead of him, keeping his other talon off the trigger of his Viper. Dex's comms came in just in time; the Kett were scrambling, getting contacted from two sides at once and not knowing where to send the bulk of their forces within that one moment. As he watched Dex and Tazen's triangles make their way back towards the squad, he keyed his own comm.

"You couldn't have had better timing, Dex. Kett's in disarray. Got 'em reeling from that trap and Team 1 hitting them at the same time. We good to go, lead?"

Ryria’s eyes flicked about the surroundings. She hyper-focused on every little detail and sought for any hint that a Wraith was lurking nearby. Usually, the dust kicked up or the light shimmered just wrong across the surface, a brief warning something was hidden in plain sight.

When Mathews’ voice crept into her helmet, Ryria’s head snapped toward the woman’s direction. She glared at Mathews through her shield. Breaking radio silence, even on personal communications, was dangerous. Anyone could easily pick up the transmission despite how protected they were. The Asari simply frowned as she left the awkward silence to settle a moment or two.

“I’m able to handle myself and notice them before their arrival. Notatus and Tazen are the ones in the hot zone. So focus on keeping them safe first,” her tone was blunt. Icy even.

She let the silence resume despite any attempts to communicate with her. Her eyes were peeled for any hostiles approaching their position when a mysterious SoS signal popped up on her omnitool. Ryia lowered her head to analyze the signal, including its location and strength, causing her paranoia to kick in. Earlier it had been nothing but radio silence. Something was off. Calmly she adjusted her position to peer over her cover just in time to spot a few Kett stalking toward the source.

On impulse, her arms raised her gun then paused. Tazen’s orders to wait rang in her head, their words preventing her from taking any possible shot and forced her to pull away from the trigger. Ryria hoped it wasn’t the scientists’ own stupidity that that just gave them away. Her worries were put to rest when an EMP blast erupted, followed by an explosion when their shields dropped.

Her communications came alive with Tazen’s voice, “Fireteam 2, you are cleared to advance, go go go!”

“Mathews and Volintis, you head out first,” Ryria ordered as she leaned into her scope ready to cover them as they advanced.

Gunfire in the distance drew nearer. It indicated to her that Tazen and Noratus were coming back to meet them halfway, blasting through the disorganized Kett. Carefully the Asari took a moment to trace the pair’s path back through the gaps in the terrain’s cover. They seemed to be handling themselves well so there was little reason to waste her shots until otherwise. After Volintis and Mathews moved, Ryria brought up the rear toward the rest of the Fireteam 2.

Serena raised an eyebrow at Ryria's glare and subsequent icy bluntness. Great. Another abrasive personality with an arrogance complex. Just when she thought she had already met her fill of them in the galaxy. "Oh, you're right. I forgot that Asari have eyes in the back of their heads and that they can focus those eyes to detect the slightest dust rising of a predator whose every fiber is designed to be stealthy while she focuses on a fire fight right in front her while trying to support her allies in the middle of said fire fight. My bad." Sarcasm dripped off of every word, a fire to push back the ice.

"History is littered with the bodies of people who didn't take precautions because they 'were able to handle themselves'. The drone will stay if things get hot. As for the other two, I can only help them when things do get dangerous."

She merely chuckled at Hazan's irritation. He'd get over it. "Don't worry Haze. We'll let you lead to the rendezvous with them. It'll be-" She suddenly cut off as an SoS popped off onto her omni-tool. It was generic, but legitimate. It certainly wasn't the scientists. They're SoS would have been specific and tailored to them. So who sent it?

Serena widened her signal to catch any replies or repeats. When she caught the reply, it made her blood chill. It was close to the original initiative. Just close enough to make any civilians or anyone desperate accept it and make themselves vulnerable. Vulnerable to be taken, or killed even. She was just about to make a message to Tazen when the EMP went off. She cursed as her shields fizzled and Del hit the ground with a thump. She was luck Sarah was so high up. The little bot would have been destroyed by the fall if the EMP had hit her. Chaos erupted as Tazen and Dex took out a squad of Kett, and Fireteam 1 attacked. She moved quickly over and picked up Del, rebooting the drone as she went.

She snorted as Dex's voice echoed over the comm. "Next time give me a warning, yeah? Nearly broke Del. Haze take up lead. You're the best at finding a path so we won't get shot." She released Del as the robot reset itself, flying into the air with a solid beep. "Del, Tres Amigos" The drone beeped again, splitting into three. "One of you stay behind Ryria and watch her six for wraith's and other enemies. The other two float around Haze and I, help us keep clear." The drones beeped, and took their respective places. Serena followed Haze as he led the way to the rendezvous with Tazen and Dex Valkyrie raised and ready.

With the battle well under way, Naryxa got to attention; "I can hold this barrier for as long as you need it at full strength but I can't do anything else so you'll have to-"

She was cut off by the EMP detonation, the sudden commotion upscuttled her to say the least. "Never mind, looks like I have incoming" she finished, eyes drawn to motions in the sand coming full speed towards her - with 3 powerful shots from her trusty Phalanx, she had eliminated the threat, the body of the wraith appeared at her feet in a cloud of dust. Some kind of disgusting pet of the Kett.

Now wasn't the time to inspect the steaming corpse, there were more incoming - with another clear round of shots she took another two of them down, and was able to push forward - staying under the cover of the crates that surrounded the lab. Her breath calm, her mind clear.

All of a sudden, a string of bullets tore through the crate to the left of her and disintegrated it like it was paper - she had to move. This was going to get her on Firu and Kargard's ass for sure. With ease, the Asari sprung in a backwards fashion up into the air, pushing herself backwards with grace into a backflip, avoiding a second spray of bullets from a Kett that was about to eat some bullets from Sabinus anyway. When she touched down onto the sand, she found herself a good distance from where she started, stood right beside Firuzeh.

Upon touchdown, she activated her biotic barrier - the purple bubble surrounded herself and Firuzeh and powered them up amongst the violent onslaught. "If we move quickly enough I can whack that Fiend with a Shockwave but between that and the barrier I'll be spent and will need to high tail out of there, but that will be the in that you and the Krogan need. Your choice if you want to take it."

She could see that the battle wasn't going to subside too soon - they were all in this for the long haul and she already began to wonder if plowing through her biotics right now was the best choice... But another round of fire from her Phalanx into a final wraith reminded her that she was a weapon - with or without them. She could recharge, and by the looks of things she had a pretty serious team around her.

Clyff let out a short pffft before laughing with the krogan. “You know, if both our mothers teamed up, Andromeda would be like ‘what’s a kett?’ Her ability to inflict mental and emotional torment are—well, were—terrifying.” It was always odd to think of all those people back in the Milky Way that he knew, were dead. Long dead, actually.

If Clyff ever thought he was the gung-ho one of the group, he was terribly mistaken. Everyone seemed to be gnashing at the bits to eliminate enemies that didn’t need a soft touch. This wasn’t the Nexus’s uprising all over again, these were nasties that needed to take down with extreme passion—and equally extreme ordinance. The fireteam leader attempted to soothe their needy barking to shoot everything in the face. Sure, Clyff was antsy for a bit of action himself. But after taking more than one—well, more than he had fingers to count—explosion and/or bullet to the face, he was a bit more cautious. Not to mention, they didn’t really have the high ground here. They had ground. It was flat. It was underneath their feet. That was it. It was far from tactically sound.

His comm clicked on about that time with another voice that wasn’t Fireteam 1. He was told to engage the kett. No one had to tell him twice. Well, him and the batarian. Damn, four eyes was on a tiny-ass-hair trigger. Eh well, batarians were… that sort of species. “So much for a squad formation.” Their fireteam leader yelled something out before moving forward to engage the enemies. The turian activated his jump jets and took to the higher ground. Did the aliens not know about squad tactics? How? How in the nine hells had they survived in space this long?

Clyff was going to keep to the ground. This was not from the fact that he was absolute garbage with his jump jets—nooooooo—he just didn’t have accurate guns that were useful from high ground. Also, he wasn’t fond of heights. Not that anyone had to know that. Free falling was a recurring nightmare he had. Naked in school, he was totally fine. Late to class, eh that was normal. Forgetting the curriculum, did his dreams even remember that he was not highly ranked in his class? Falling was an entirely different matter.

So, he moved forward activating his adrenaline rush. In hindsight, maybe twenty-or-so years down the line, he might question how many chemicals and additives he pumped into his veins. Now, though, he was more interested in doing his job. His shotgun was close range, and so he had to move in on them quickly—not too quickly as to outpace anyone that was behind him and probably using him as a meat shield. Some of the grunts sights had followed the fireteam leader as he propelled himself up and over them. The turian managed to take them out, but the body of its dead comrade had caught the attention of a nearby kett. So, Clyff used that distraction to ram the butt of his shotgun into the back of its head. It staggered and turned around, a little off its footing. Clyff then aimed the barrel of the gun against its torso and released his piping hot incendiary rounds into its gut. It fell to the ground, a noxious fume of burning tissue entering the air.

“You’re welcome,” he said to his team. The next kett grunt turned towards the man, and Clyff fired two rounds at it. The tight grouping of metal penetrated its armor. Two shots to the chest, and it tumbled to the ground. His HUD flashed that he needed to reload. Right, he loved his big, angry shotgun, but it did eat through clips like a hog through slop.

Unfortunately, another kett was winding up to shoot him. It was right in-between him and some decent cover to reload. So, doing what Clyff did best, he ran recklessly at the face of danger. A few shots were absorbed by his shields, and his HUD flashed angrily at him. Shove it common sense, he thought as he plowed into the kett, lowering his own body to knock the other one off-kilter. It fell to the ground in a jumble of limbs and angry—or at least he assumed—noises. Clyff then rammed the butt of his shotgun into the creature’s head enough times that it went limp and let out a death gurgle. “Yeah, I bet the cute space-cats don’t use that maneuver against you ugly shits.” A few shots peppered his shields. He really needed to take cover. So, he dove for it and started to reload his shotgun.

“Anyone feel like covering me?” he asked. “I’ll pay you back in beer.”

Ryria remained hunched down behind the discarded equipment. Her eyes still traced Notatus and Tazen’s path through the scope, following them closely with her finger on the trigger. It sounded like the other fireteam had been given permission to begin their distraction. More shots came in the distance causing most of the Kett to reroute toward the biggest threat.

For the most part, she had ignored Mathew’s sarcastic statements. It was pointless to waste the energy on restating facts. In addition, the Asari didn’t care about Mathew’s first impression because they were only required to work together. As long as they were able to do this, there was little reason to go beyond an associate-type relationship. It would only end up being painful later for her and it was a lesson she didn’t intend to repeat again.

When Mathew’s drone split into three, Ryria didn’t react. Inside she mentally rolled her eyes at the decision to leave one behind to cover her. It already appeared about three of the individuals she was working with had history due to how comfortable they were with each other. As Mathews and Volintis moved out, Ryria raised over the edge of her cover with her rifle ready to take a pot shot at the nearest threat.

As Tazen made his way back towards the rest of Fireteam 2 alongside Dex he couldn’t help but notice that his turian comrade seemed on edge around him, a stark contrast to her more upbeat demeanor when they had set off. Letting his mind wander back to the events that had just happened a few moments ago Tazen noticed that Dex’s nervousness had begun the moment he had begun talking about how the Kett could have gotten access to Initiative communications. After that, it didn’t took him too long to recall her words about how she was worried about the Exiles and his mind connected the dots. “She is worried that she might have said too much. That I might use her sympathies against the Exiles somehow.” He mused to himself in silence. He couldn’t exactly blame her, Salarians had a reputation for being manipulative individuals and the fact that she knew he was ex-STG only served to probably to worsen those concerns.

He couldn't blame her for those concerns, not really, he had met plenty of people in STG which would have taken advantage of such a piece of information after all, either to keep Dex in line or as a trump card in case there was need to use Dex for some plot or any of the million scenarios that the vast majority of STG agents always kept planning and plotting for. He frowned to himself “I should talk to her at some point, there’s no way that she’ll be able to trust me as her CO if she’s constantly waiting for the moment when the other shoe will drop and I'll use what she said against her.” He thought to himself, letting out a soft sigh before he shook his head. There was no time to distract himself with idle thoughts, the lives of the trapped scientists depended on him keeping his mind fully on the objective; he could deal with the situation with Dex later on, once the mission was over.

It didn't take them too long to rendezvous with the rest of the team, a fact that was readily apparent when Volintis cheerfully greeted Dex. “Yes, we are good to advance, keel the same formation as before.” Said the Salarian, idly noting with a slight tinge of irritation that the team had met them halfway from where he had told them to stay put. He had told them to stay put for a reason, of the three that had remained only Volintis had a tactical cloak and if it weren't for the distraction he and Dex had provided, coupled with the charge from Fireteam 1, they could have been easily discovered. More importantly than that however he noted that the three that had remained behind seemed inordinately tense, it was expected for such a mission to put pressure on the team, especially since they had to scramble fro man on-going training exercise to get to it, but the amount of tension that everyone gave seemed to be disproportionate to what he had expected. A Kett ambush was out of the question as a possible source of the tension, after all none of the three were hurt and if they’d have been attacked he was sure someone would have contacted him, and so the only explanation left was that there must have been some sort of altercation or something similar to that “Perfect, Noratus thinks that I’m going to turn on her at any moment and the rest of the team doesn’t get along for one reason or another.” He thought with a sigh before he began moving towards the building that contained Site 1’s laboratory.

Luckily for them, the attack from Fireteam 1 had rerouted most of the Kett forces away from the lab and what few stragglers remained were easily avoided by the team. As such it didn’t take them more than a couple of minutes for them to reach the place where the scientists were hiding, unfortunately that’s when they encountered their first setback. “Ah, damnit.” Hissed Tazen as he looked at the door that led into the lab, he had tried to open the door with his omnitool, even using his clearance as an APEX commander just in case the scientists had changed what codes the door accepted, only for the door to remain stubbornly shut and only now did the cause became evident to him. “The scientists welded the door shut, Matthews I need you here.” He said, turning to face Serena when he said the last part “Volintis, Noratus, you are with me, we’ll watch the perimeter for any hostiles while matthews works on opening the door.” Said Tazen as he turned to face the pair of Turians. “T’vessi, once the door is open I want you to check for any injuries on the scientists and to provide medical aid in case they are injured.” He said while pulling out his SMG “Matthews, tell me when the door is ready to be opened, ok?” Tazen added without turning, his eyes scanning the horizon for any potential Kett threats.

Serena nodded, snapping her fingers at the three Dels. ”Watcher positions.” They beeped their understanding, taking up positions to either side of the door, and above it. She settled down in front of the door, scanning it with her eye. She tsked as the scan came back. ”Sloppy and hurried. This weld wouldn’t have stopped that Fiend if the Kett wanted it to break this door down.”

She opened her omni-tool into blow torch mode, settling down to begin cutting through the right places. As Tazen told her to alert him when the door was ready to open, she replied with sarcasm without thinking, focusing on what she was doing. ”No, I was just gonna sit here quie-” She paused, biting her tongue. This is gonna take a bit of getting used too. “Sorry. I’ll make sure to tell you when it's ready to be popped opened, ETA 2-4 minutes. Sir!” She added the end hastily, almost forgetting it.

Quickly she applied the blow torch, sparks flying against her helmet.

Luckily as Serena worked on cutting through the weld nothing happened, the 4 minutes went by without FIreteam 2 being disturbed as Serena worked. “Good job Matthews.” Said Tazen after Serena told him that she was done, giving the woman a brief pat on the shoulder for a job well done. “Take my place on the lookout for hostiles.” He said as he approached the door that led to the labs, unfortunately the doors automated systems were a bust after all that it had been done to it so Tazen was forced to open the door manually.

Once Tazen finally managed to open the door several things happened in the span of a few seconds. The scientists, and what few guards remained with them, panicked when they noticed that the door was being opened forcefully and began screaming; simultaneously one of the few remaining guards raised it’s rifle and shot at Tazen, the staccato sound of the rifle’s gunfire breaking the seeming calm around the area.

“Everyone, calm down!” Shouted Tazen forcefully, his shields having absorbed the gunfire directed at him by the panicked guard. The scared survivors stopped suddenly when they heard Tazen’s shout, as if suddenly breaking out of a reverie, their eyes widening in recognition as they took notice of the Initiative's logo on Tazen’s armor. Unfortunately the panicked shot from the scared guard had more dire consequences than merely weakening Tazen’s shields, as the sound of gunfire drew the attention of a nearby Kett patrol a fact that soon became clear to the rest of the team outside the building as the sounds of footsteps drew ever closer to the labs.

Soon enough the Kett forces, a group of about 7 consisting of 5 Chosen and 2 Anointed, were close enough that they were able to take potshots at Fireteam 2. “Survivors, you stay put here, this is not up for discussion, and that includes the guards as well.” He said as he turned towards the door once again. “Volintis, Matthews, Noratus, take defensive positions, engage the Kett forces!” Shouted Tazen as he hurried out of the building once he heard the first gunshot from the Kett “T’vessi, give the scientists and guards a cursory analysis then come to help defend us.” He said while taking cover outside the building, taking out his SMG once again. “Let’s wrap this up people, we are on the final stretch now.” Said Tazen as he briefly peeked from cover and took a potshot at the advancing group of Kett.

While the firefight was going heavy with deafening gunfire and shouting across the entire compound, Sabinus kept half an eye on what team 2 was up to, doing his best to draw fire away from where the infiltration team was trying to access where the scientists might have been held up. It looked like they managed to weld the door shut, even.

I’m surprised they even had a welder handy, let alone know how to use one. the turian thought, checking his visor for the status of his fireteam. Everyone was still in the green, which was a relief, and the two hotheads of Kargad and Firu were so far managing to evade being pulped by the Fiend, who seemed particularly eager to end that nuisance while ignoring the rest of the squad. If only the good fortunes would hold, Sabinus thought, taking advantage of one of the Anointed overheating to jump jet to the next building over. The high ground was an advantage the Kett were lacking, and it kept him from being flanked. As the big bastard struggled to cool his oversized cannon down, Sabinus fired off a concussive shot that smacked the Kett heavy in the face, prompting an oversized mitt to cover his eye in pain. Sabinus grinned behind his visor. Dirty shots like that never got old.

He landed and quickly acquired his bearings and quickly took note of the mass of hostiles starting to converge on team 2; the distraction wasn’t holding. Clyff’s voice came over the comms,

“Anyone feel like covering me?” he asked. “I’ll pay you back in beer.”

”Better idea, we’re going to engage the gaggle of bad guys from behind, shotguns at the ready. Keep an eye on the sky; I’m taking out the straggler. Please don’t let me do this alone.” Sabinus replied, keeping his comms open as he acquired the rearmost Chosen. Slipping his rifle back onto his back and pulling free the Piranha shotgun, Sabinus got a running start and jumped up, engaging the jump jets once more to gain some altitude and close the distance from the enemy group. An omniblade formed on his left fist, the iridescent orange glow shining against his armour and giving a vague visage of a meteorite coming down on the Chosen, the blade sinking between the neck and the shoulder blade as Sabinus’ foot impacted the small of the Kett’s back, driving the Chosen into the ground hard, dark blood spewing out of the puncture wound. He was practically in spitting distance of the rest of the group, who were reacting to the sudden appearance of the turian, who with one hand had his shotgun levelled at the nearest Chosen, blowing a hole clean through the ugly alien’s face before freeing his off-hand by deactivating the omnitool and bringing the weapon to bear on the next Anointed, opening fire with a series of shots that came close to depleting his clip before the first shots came back at him. He rolled closer to where the dying Anointed stood, hopefully using the large body as a meatshield until he could slap in a new clip.

”Ward, I need you buddy,” he spoke into the still open comms, discharging the nearly spent clip as his fingers traced for a replacement. The dirt around him kicked up from return fire.

Serena dove behind cover as the Kett squad appeared, Valkyrie at the ready.Of course the guards had panic fired, and of course the Kett had heard and noticed it over the gunfire of Fireteam 1's distraction. Because nothing could go right on their first mission. God forbid it be a simple and smooth extraction. "That could have been handled better." She muttered, looking up at her three drones. "Cloak, focus the Anointed." The drones beeped in unison, disappearing as they moved towards the enemy. She peaked over her cover, counting the enemies they have. She ducked back behind as bullets screamed above her, ricocheting off of the building behind her.

"Two Anointed, five Chosen. Dels are going to hit the Anointed from behind. No signs of any Wraiths yet, but I suppose that's the point of them." The Anointed were her priority. Fireteam 2 wasn't meant to be in a slugfest with the Kett, all of them being more suited towards supporting those who were good at that which happened to be everyone in Fireteam 1. That meant the Anointed had to be taken care of quickly, or they would end up regretting it. She brought up her omni-tool, readying her Energy Drain for when the Dels were in position. "Dels almost in position. Moving to eliminate the left Anointed's shields. Dex, can you hit the right Anointed with an overload and then shoot him in the skull with me on my mark? Dels will take care the left."

Upon hearing the turian's affirmative, Serena smiled fondly. It was just like old times. Though, hopefully, she'd be a better shot this time and less likely to get hurt and have to be saved. She winced briefly, touching the side of her neck where the scar was. Yeah. Not an experience I want to repeat.

As her omni-tool beeped with confirmation from the Dels, she took a deep breath. "Alright. Ready Dex? Three, two, one, mark!" She snapped up from cover, Energy Drain leaving her omni-tool the instant she was over the edge. Orange lightning crackled from her omni-tool, crossing the distance between the two sides in a heartbeat, wrapping itself around the Anointed and shattering the Kett's shields as it constricted and yanked. Simultaneously Dex's blue lighting from her overload leapt forward to crash into the Anointed on the right, illuminating the battlefield in clashing orange and blue. Serena smiled at the sight. Twin streaks of initiative justice. As the left Anointed stumbled, its shields gone, Serena quickly brought her Valkyrie up and fired at the Anointed on the right, old reflexes taking over as she compensated for the kick as the Valkyrie spat two shots at the enemy. Her rounds hit the Kett's shoulder, sending him stumbling backwards.

Hey, that's pretty goo- Dex's sniper round slammed through the Anointed's head, splattering gore on the sands behind him. ...But not that good.

Gatling fire roared to life as the three Dels unleashed shrieking death upon the Anointed on the left, the Kett struggling to recover from being knocked off balance. The bullets tore through him and his body did a macabre dance, shaking in place, before falling to the ground. "Evasion, keep them off balance. Don't get shot, please." The Dels beeped in response, slipping away from the returning Kett fire as the Chosen turned to face the new threat.

Serena ducked behind cover again, breathing a sigh of relief. Hard, fast, and she hadn't even lost her shields in the process. Only a couple of bullets from the Chosen had hit her, before they turned to deal with the threat of her Drones. Probably the smoothest thing that had happened to her in Andromeda. Which was sad, everything considered.

"Haze, I think you're slipping. That's me with one and you with zero still! Gotten rusty after your long sleep, or have I just gotten that much better since our last firefight together?"

Khosin was keenly aware of the movements that his teammates had done, his four eyes allowing him to easily take notice of where Sabinius and Clyff had moved after he had charged straight into the enemy. He filed the information of his teammates position for latter, turning his focus back on the Kett currently shooting at him; bringing up his omni-tool in the direction of his assailants, a second later his drone manifested amidst the Kett shooting at him. Sparks of electricity arked from the hard-light chasi of the drone and towards the Chosen.

Switching his Raider shotgun for his Mattock AR, Khosin didn’t waste a second and took advantage of the brief window of opportunity presented to him by his drone dispatching his stunned enemies with precise shots. It was shortly after that that Clyff’s transmission reached Khosin’s ears.

“Anyone feel like covering me?”The transmission said “I’ll pay you back in beer.”

“Understood Ward, give me a second and I’ll reposition to provide covering fire.” Khosin said into the team comms. However, before he could reposition himself closer to Clyff’s position, another voice rang.

”Better idea, we’re going to engage the gaggle of bad guys from behind, shotguns at the ready. Keep an eye on the sky; I’m taking out the straggler. Please don’t let me do this alone.” The leader of Fireteam 1 spoke through the comms. It didn’t took Khosin very long to locate his Turian leader, his four eyes allowing him to easily scan the battlefield around him and the path that Sabinius followed with his jump jets. Khosin smirked slightly as he saw Sabinius take two Kett Chosen in quick succession after he had landed.

“Moving to support you sir, I’ll be there in a second.” The Batarian said as he heard Sabinius’s call for help from Ward. Biotic energy gathered around Khosin’s body once more, his stance shifting ever so slightly so that he was facing the spot next to where Sabinius had landed, before it suddenly exploded, the force of the biotic explosion carrying the Batarian the closest spot to Sabinius. Without waiting for a second, Khosin pulled back his fist, his enforcement gauntlet activating as he pulled back his arm, and quickly struck an encroaching Kett Chosen square in the chest. The chest of the Chosen caved in, the hit from the enforcement gauntlet destroying the chest of the Kett in one go leaving only a gaping wound in the corpse of the enemy.

Quickly turning around, Khosin pulled his Raider shotgun and let loose a volley of return fire towards the enemies that were shooting at Sabinius before quickly closing the gap and taking cover in a spot near the Turian “I’m here sir, what’s the plan of action now?” He spoke as he popped from cover, shooting another Chosen in the chest before taking cover once again. “Come on everyone, if you take this long me and Tannyx will wipe off all these Kett by ourselves.” He said with fake bravado through the team comms as he peeked from cover once more, shooting at one of the remaining Anointed. Unfortunately Khosin was a second too slow and the Anointed managed to bring his gun to bear, the heavy machine gun easily tearing through his Tech-armor and shield; only the quick use of his drone saved Khosin from certain death and, even then, he had taken a glancing hit to his side while taking cover again.

Ryria was silent. Her eyes continued to peer about, ignoring Del’s presence, while she kept her weapon cocked and ready. There was no reason to expect things would go smoothly. Things always went wrong when they went according to plan. This time was no different. Her finger tightened on her trigger before it abruptly loosened. A reminder to rein in her anxiety and desire to be done with this task. When they finally reached the civilian scientists then fall back, she could leave to get back to what she needed most: treating those who needed it.

She had considered suggesting a better method when Tazen already started to bark orders. Her lips pressed tightly to silence her desires while Matthew moved to wield open the door. Without a word to any of the others, Ryria flipped from her sniper rifle to her pistol. It would provide better cover when the Kett heard the door fall.

Ryria’s ears caught the screams and gunfire, her barrier immediately rushed up to protect herself from the bullet ricochet. She hissed quietly in disapproval as Tazen immediately shouted over the chaos. Her head turned to those inside, waiting for things to die down.

Sounds of footsteps caught her attention, her eyes spotted the approaching Kett coming toward them. Like expected, things were falling off track from the plan. Ryria quickly holstered her gun before she began to check each individual over, looking for anything beyond superficial wounds.