Skeleton Coast, Nambia
Janiri was really beginning to regret her choice to join the SRN.
What was she doing here? Their shuttle shook almost as much as she did. Nervous energy and no small amount of fear kept her right leg going up and down while her fingers tapped against Kuri. The assault drone was shut down and in it's portable mode across her lap. She was grateful perhaps for the first time for her Eclipse armor. Even if the helmet was tight against her head and pressed her crest uncomfortable down, it hopefully hid the fact that she was terrified from the group of highly trained professionals around here. Not that it was hard to see her curling in on herself and Kuri, trying to put as much distance between her and the others in the small shuttle as she could, and lessen the risk of them touching her. But maybe they would assume she just didn't like to be touched and not notice that her heart was about to burst out of her chest.
What was she doing here? The thought kept repeating as she smelled the sea and heard their pilot give them a five minute warning. She was barely a soldier. She hadn't even had anything to prepare with or for after the meeting and explanation of the plan and her role in it. No gear that needed cleaning, no strategy to go over with Katya or her distraction teammates, nothing. She had just set her gear down where she had been told and went back to helping set up the camp. Eight hours of moving supplies, helping dispose of corpses, and building shelters before she settled down for three hours to get some sleep. It was tiring work, but it was something she had understood completely. Not like what she was doing now.
What was she doing here? None of the people around her looked like they were going through the same nervousness and fear. Just quiet readiness. She wished she could feel that same calm.
As she felt the rocket be launched from their shuttle, and Katya ordered them down, Janiri began to pray. "Kurinith, goddess of the hunt and warrior of the night, bless us on this day. Make our shields strong, our aim true, and our victory swift. Kurinth, goddess of the hunt and warrior of the night, offer us protection as we go into battle." Her words were quiet, rapid, and more than a little desperate. She felt the shuttle's landing vibrate through her entire body. She took two deep breaths, trying and failing to steady herself. She had done this before, hundreds of times. Against Reapers no less! She knew how this would go, and she was ready. She was ready. Even in her own mind, the words rang hollow. Visions of the landing apart of the Hammer task group and all her other landings in shuttles against the Reapears ran rapidly through her mind, a blurred cacophony of violence.
For half a moment relief washed over her as they all poured out of the shuttle she was able to get a distance away from the rest of the team. Her screaming fear of accidentally touching one of them quieting down. It was immediately replaced by the screaming fear of being shot as she heard the sniper rifle crack. She scrambled for cover behind one of the many shipwrecks, setting Kuri down in front of her. "Okay, time to get going, we're back in a fight." Bullets sparked against her rusted cover, causing her to instinctively flinch. "Fuck fuck fuck."
It was with great relief that she finally got Kuri online. The Assault Drone floated lightly in the air in front of her, waiting for a command. "Okay, ten hostiles. Shoot to surpress, do not kill. They're under some sort of mind control, so it's not really they're fault." Janiri peeked around her cover to see if she could get eyes on. She only saw flickers of rapid movement. The drell were fast. She jerked back with a yelp as a sniper rifle round missed her by inches. "Not that they seem to care that we're not trying to kill them. Stay low. Peekaboo tactics."
Janiri tapped into her omni-tool the correct commands and Kuri beeped affirmative, weaving in and out of the shipwrecks as it fired upon the drell. That would have to be good enough. Janiri crouched behind her cover, hand hovering over the button to activate her tech armor. "Turn it on, I'd be more protected but a giant glowing orange beacon for whoever wants to shoot at me. But if they're shooting at me they're not shooting at the far more experienced people of the group and those people can take them out. Aaaah fuck it." She slapped the button and was immediately surrounded by the bright orange armor. "Kurinth give me strength."
With that she pulled her Avenger and fired off a burst of shots at the movement of the drell. They missed, of course, but it kept their heads down. She hoped. Hard to see what they were doing aside from movements in the middle of the night. As she kept moving from cover to cover, trying to keep the attention of the sniper on her and to get a better angle on the drell, Janiri finally saw what she was looking for. A drell began to glow with biotic power, likely planning a warp or singularity on the teammates with weakened shields. "No you don't!" Janiri stepped out of her cover and launched the damping protocol from her omni-tool with a vibrant white flash. The biotic glow was immediately snuffed out as white beam crackled like lightning across the battlefield and exploded next to it. With a vindictiveness born of jealousy, Janiri grinned. That would teach the bastard for using biotics that she couldn't.
Her grin fell away as her eyes caught another biotic glow, this time direted at her. As the charge built and unleashed, Janiri froze. What little training she had melted away as her eyes widened in panic. She was going to get hit, she needed to move, why wasn't she moving! Her thoughts were cut off as the charge hit her flush in the chest and she flew backwards through a rusted ship with an Oof! Her tech armor shattered from the impact and she laid there for a second, the wind knocked out of her. What was she doing here? The crunch of footsteps on sand brought her out of her stunned state and she scrambled to her feet as a shotgun blast knocked her shields down low. Her avenger gone, Janiri grabbed her stun net and swung it like a staff at the drell. The net whistled through empty air as the drell moved fluidly out of the way. They were somehow even faster up close rather than at a distance. "Help, help, help!" Janiri spoke in ragged breaths, swinging the staff again as fast as she could. She was desperately attempting to keep him from being able to aim his shotgun, though how long before his biotics recharged and ended her chances was anyones guess.
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Auz
Lord Zee