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”That’s enough time, don’t you think?” Sabinus said to Tazen, pulling up his omnitool, composing a quick message for the assault team’s eyes only. It simply read,
PROCEED
The turian closed the omnitool, moving to reposition himself so there was a better vantage point of the objective without giving away the attacking team’s advancement with the turn of a head. Instead, as he had mastered as a cadet in training years ago, he learned to look around during parades with only the most minute shifts in his eye, nothing one would notice at a distance. It was time to see how his team handled themselves after being on ice for six centuries, and at the very least, it should prove to be interesting.
Anjor and Cliff had got to work right away planting what Sabinus assumed were explosive devices, creating at the very least a zone of deniability that had to be cleared cautiously. It would force the enemy to divert to other approaches and give the defenders a window to react to the attacking force, or even score a few lucky kills if they managed to catch them out of cover. It was a very rudimentary, but effective, tactic in most defensive strategies. Mines were often placed in areas to create chokepoints or to shore up weaker defensive positions. Given that they were trapped in a small building with no fire support or heavy defensive weaponry, the entire perimeter could be considered a weak point that relied on the vigilance and talent of each individual rather than force multipliers. It was pleasing for Sabinus to note that some doctrines seemed innate to training, no matter what species did the said training.
A shot rang out in the relative quiet, and from concealment on the ridge must have been Hazan with the assault rifle, which managed to break through Anjor’s shields and impact his arm, the shot wasn’t fully debilitating as it would be if the shields had already been depleted, but it forced the Angara into cover while Cliff laid down a field of suppressive fire towards Hazan’s location; even with the range advantage, an assault rifle could still largely keep an accurate cone of fire at long distances, forcing Hazan to take cover lest he get an unlucky shot to the face or the weapon. The problem with fighting in a desert was there weren’t a lot of effective bits of cover, and although Eos had a number of rocky outcroppings and hoodoos, it wouldn’t be hard for anyone with experience to know where the logical shooting positions would be. Cliff, having secured Anjor’s retreat, himself fell back into cover, making his way into the building. Sabinus’ mandibles clicked out of curiosity; what was the strategy? Ideally, you’d want to keep the enemy from breaching your last line of defense and delay them in open cover for as long as possible, but he was hesitant to write it off as a mistake or error in judgement. The turian could read their dossiers until his face markings melted off but still not have an appreciation for their individual talents until he had a chance to observe them in action.
And so, the attacking team advanced. Hazan began firing at the disturbed ground, disabling the explosive charges methodically to clear an access point for his team to approach, and approach they did. Knowing his position was compromised, the turian got up to reposition, heading down the rise to regroup with the team when another heavy shot rang out, striking Hazan in the lower abdomen, causing him to stumble and slide down the hill, whether from the pain of the impact or to get into cover further down was unclear, but a trio of drones quickly converged on Ryria’s position, and over the gunfire Sabinus could hear her shouting out intel to her team while taking cover from the drones, using a biotic backlash barrier to protect herself, although Serena’s drones had made it impossible to cover all of her angles and the asari was taking hits from behind, although fortunately no one from the ground could get a shot at her. Releasing the backlash, and deflecting the shots back at one of the drones, Ryria managed to disable the first of the drones and her sidearm managed to take down another before Serena called her drone off, keeping it moving higher above and harder to hit. This effectively kept the asari from being able to shoot down into the attacking team below, and freed up their advance.
Kargad bellowed out a half warcry, half laugh as he charged through the somewhat cleared out minefield, explosions detonating beside and behind him as his mass and biotic barriers absorbed the bulk of the charges. Had they been full strength devices and not dialed back for the exercise, it might not have worked, but the krogan managed to barrel through with typical recklessness that was undeniably effective at laying waste to the most carefully laid defenses, and it was all Anjor could to to keep firing at Kargad to try and take down the charging krogan.
Concussive rounds hit Kargad, staggering his charge somewhat. Suddenly, a blur of purple-blue energy cracked out of the door frame like a railgun; Firu had hit the krogan with a biotic charge and had brought him into melee range. Given his formidable resistance and reaction time, he had managed to bring his hammer up to block most of the impact, but now the two heavy hitters were locked in a biotic melee struggle, the impacts making even Sabinus flinch in their intensity, shotgun blasts and punches being met with hammer blows and headbutts. Kargad managed to grab Firu by the chest armour, driving her hard into the ground, knocking the wind out of her, but she still managed to grab her shotgun by the barrel and drive the grip into the krogan’s jaw, forcing him to stumble back, dazed, before finally collapsing backwards, having absorbed a tank’s worth of abuse before succumbing to the accumulated abuse. A triumphant Firu tried to get back to her feet when a biotic envelope surrounded her, yanking her off her feet towards Naryxa, who used her rifle to put a tidy burst center mass into Firu, disabling her as well.
The two heavies had been so eager to test their mettle against each other they weren’t working effectively with their team; it would be something that would need to be ironed out. It could be argued that Firu sacrificed herself to stop the krogan, which would have been hellish to deal with had he gotten inside, and Kargad put himself at risk to clear a path for the others to advance, something that only really had a place in war vids; while a hostage had their life on the line, so to speak, speed was of the essence. It would be essential to keep his impulses in check and to not overestimate his capabilities; a krogan in the right circumstances was unstoppable, but not when the battle heavily favoured the enemy’s position.
Sabinus was pulled out of the exercise when his omnitool pulled up a call from Kandros; it was flashing red, so it definitely wasn’t a social call.
“Tannyx, we have a situation.” The APEX commander said immediately, cutting right to the point when he saw his subordinate's face appear. “We have an issue on Eos that requires immediate response at Site 1. A research team has been sent on site to see if any equipment could be salvaged and what data might still be recovered and have come under attack from a Kett patrol. The security detachment is overwhelmed and there are casualties. I need your team to head there immediately; I know you haven’t officially cleared the team for operations, but you’re closest and the Kett don’t wait for paperwork.”
“Understood. Get a shuttle ready, we’re on our way. Echo One out.” Tannyx said, cutting the comms. He send an alarm to each of the omnitools for the team to cut the exercise short. Running down to the site, he managed to get the exercise stopped. “I hate to cut training short before our 5 click march, but we have a situation at Site 1, Promise. I need you all to gear up for combat operations; a bunch of researchers who don’t know how to hold a gun need to be shown why APEX is what’s going to keep the Kett from preventing Eos from being home. Gather your kit, we’re having a shuttle sent our way. Move out, Echo!”
~~~
Fireteam Echo gathered quickly, its members trading their training loadout for their original firearms and in a few minutes everyone was inside the shuttle making its way towards Site 1. Inside of the shuttle Tazen stood next to Sabinius, the Salarian rapidly checking the information that had been sent both to him and his Turian colleague. “Alright Echo, as Lieutenant Tannyx mentioned briefly, there is a situation in Site 1 involving some researchers that is top priority.” Spoke the Salarian while tapping his omnitool, a holographic map of Site 1 appearing on the Salarian’s omnitool and on each of the omnitool’s carried by each member of Echo. “In light of the success on Eos, and the establishment of Prodromos.” Continued Tazen “The leadership of the Initiative thought it’d be wise to salvage as much equipment and data as possible from both Site 1 and 2, unfortunately the research team that had been sent to do this task was caught by a Kett patrol while they were combing Site 1.”
“The appearance of the Kett caught the team by surprise and before they could retreat to their shuttle and escape a few members of the team were killed.” He said “Current state of the team is unknown, the last information that we have on them is that they were locking themselves in one of the buildings on Site 1, the primary objective is to locate the scientists and extract them from the area.” Spoke the Salarian “To do this we’ll set down the shuttle near the outskirts of Site 1.” Said Tazen, pointing at the area he had in mind on the holographic map before he continued, “Once we do that Noratus, Volintis and myself will split off from the main group and try and locate the scientists. Our tactical cloaks should give us the advantage and let us slip by the Kett, allowing us to locate the scientists more easily and, if everything goes well, to extract them without risk.”
“To minimize any potential risks, T’vessi and Mathews will also come with us to act as support while the rest of you will engage with the Kett forces present on Site 1. That way, with their attention turned away from the trapped scientists, we’ll be able to safely extract the salvage team.” Said Tazen “If the plan goes off without a hitch your omnitools will flash once with an alarm, should we be compromised in our efforts to rescue the researchers the alarm on your omnitools will flash twice to signal that we’ve been encountered by the Kett.”
”Rest of you are with me. We are going to get as close as we can while the infiltration team does its job without being spotted and to hit the Kett hard when the package is secure. I don’t think any of you are under an illusion that the Kett can be reasoned with or will show compassion or mercy; they’re monsters that need to be stamped out hard and ladies and gentlemen, we are the Nexus’ giant boot of retribution. Ready up, people; it’s time to show Anjor how we’re going to help the Angara free the Helius Cluster from the invaders. Spirits guide your aim and steady your resolve. Remember to keep your spacing.” Sabinus added.
The shuttle came in fast and low, keeping low to the ground so they wouldn’t be spotted coming. The Kodiak set down somewhat South of Resilience, or Site 2. It wouldn’t be a far route to Site 1. Sabinus’ boots hit dirt first, his L-89 Halberd expanding into shooting configuration as he began to lead the way for his team, his thumb putting the fire-selector onto burst fire as he moved, keeping minimal profile as the team fell in, keeping 3 meters between each trooper as they approached Site 1, the posts of the energy shield acting as landmarks in the not so far distance.
Arriving on site, Sabinus’ team took up positions near the driving path on the Northeast Corner where they had the best sightlines and some respectable cover to see into the camp; hovering above were two dropships. From the intelligence briefings each of the team would have received about the Kett, they could make out about 20 troopers with assault rifles and shotguns, 5 heavy Anointed with heavy repeater cannons that were bigger than any of the team’s armaments, and 6 Wraiths, the massie varren-like beasts that had a baffling ability to mimic a tactical cloak… that they could see. More alarming was the singular Fiend that was stomping around a building impatiently, its bulk easily that of three krogan. While a few were guarding the perimeter, most of the forces seemed more concerned about the survivors locked up in one of the structures, and a pair of Wraiths were fighting over the remains of one of the victims, tearing at a turian body with shark-like teeth.
”Alright, team, here’s the play. The Fiend and Anointed are public enemy number one; they’re heavily armoured so hit them with explosives, warp, AP rounds, fire… anything that’ll help break up their defenses so small arm fire can penetrate their defenses. The Wraiths will cloak and try to flank us, so watch the dust if you lose sight of them; something that heavy’s not going to hide the dirt kicking up behind them. The soldiers are nothing special, put them down in order of threat. Hold your fire until we get word from Team 2 or you hear gunshots, clear? Call your targets. Sabinus asked over comms.
~~~
Tazen looked as Sabinius and the rest of Fireteam Echo began making their way towards Promise to engage the Kett forces currently present in the failed outpost. Turning to look at the other four members of his team Tazen spoke “Alright, we’ll give Sabinius’ team a few more seconds before we go in, we’ll circle around the posts of the energy shield to avoid any potential confrontations with the Kett.” He finished before turning to look at Ryria and Serena “T’vessi, Mathews, you’ll stay further behind since you two don’t have tactical cloaks like the rest of us, your job will be to provide support for me, Volintis, and Noratus. Where the Kett to locate you remember to give the signal to the rest of the team.” He added “Alright, let us find this scientists and bring them back home safely.” Finished speaking the Salarian before beginning to make his way towards Site 1, giving the rest of his team a brief nod and activating his tactical cloak once they were close enough to the failed outpost.
PROCEED
The turian closed the omnitool, moving to reposition himself so there was a better vantage point of the objective without giving away the attacking team’s advancement with the turn of a head. Instead, as he had mastered as a cadet in training years ago, he learned to look around during parades with only the most minute shifts in his eye, nothing one would notice at a distance. It was time to see how his team handled themselves after being on ice for six centuries, and at the very least, it should prove to be interesting.
Anjor and Cliff had got to work right away planting what Sabinus assumed were explosive devices, creating at the very least a zone of deniability that had to be cleared cautiously. It would force the enemy to divert to other approaches and give the defenders a window to react to the attacking force, or even score a few lucky kills if they managed to catch them out of cover. It was a very rudimentary, but effective, tactic in most defensive strategies. Mines were often placed in areas to create chokepoints or to shore up weaker defensive positions. Given that they were trapped in a small building with no fire support or heavy defensive weaponry, the entire perimeter could be considered a weak point that relied on the vigilance and talent of each individual rather than force multipliers. It was pleasing for Sabinus to note that some doctrines seemed innate to training, no matter what species did the said training.
A shot rang out in the relative quiet, and from concealment on the ridge must have been Hazan with the assault rifle, which managed to break through Anjor’s shields and impact his arm, the shot wasn’t fully debilitating as it would be if the shields had already been depleted, but it forced the Angara into cover while Cliff laid down a field of suppressive fire towards Hazan’s location; even with the range advantage, an assault rifle could still largely keep an accurate cone of fire at long distances, forcing Hazan to take cover lest he get an unlucky shot to the face or the weapon. The problem with fighting in a desert was there weren’t a lot of effective bits of cover, and although Eos had a number of rocky outcroppings and hoodoos, it wouldn’t be hard for anyone with experience to know where the logical shooting positions would be. Cliff, having secured Anjor’s retreat, himself fell back into cover, making his way into the building. Sabinus’ mandibles clicked out of curiosity; what was the strategy? Ideally, you’d want to keep the enemy from breaching your last line of defense and delay them in open cover for as long as possible, but he was hesitant to write it off as a mistake or error in judgement. The turian could read their dossiers until his face markings melted off but still not have an appreciation for their individual talents until he had a chance to observe them in action.
And so, the attacking team advanced. Hazan began firing at the disturbed ground, disabling the explosive charges methodically to clear an access point for his team to approach, and approach they did. Knowing his position was compromised, the turian got up to reposition, heading down the rise to regroup with the team when another heavy shot rang out, striking Hazan in the lower abdomen, causing him to stumble and slide down the hill, whether from the pain of the impact or to get into cover further down was unclear, but a trio of drones quickly converged on Ryria’s position, and over the gunfire Sabinus could hear her shouting out intel to her team while taking cover from the drones, using a biotic backlash barrier to protect herself, although Serena’s drones had made it impossible to cover all of her angles and the asari was taking hits from behind, although fortunately no one from the ground could get a shot at her. Releasing the backlash, and deflecting the shots back at one of the drones, Ryria managed to disable the first of the drones and her sidearm managed to take down another before Serena called her drone off, keeping it moving higher above and harder to hit. This effectively kept the asari from being able to shoot down into the attacking team below, and freed up their advance.
Kargad bellowed out a half warcry, half laugh as he charged through the somewhat cleared out minefield, explosions detonating beside and behind him as his mass and biotic barriers absorbed the bulk of the charges. Had they been full strength devices and not dialed back for the exercise, it might not have worked, but the krogan managed to barrel through with typical recklessness that was undeniably effective at laying waste to the most carefully laid defenses, and it was all Anjor could to to keep firing at Kargad to try and take down the charging krogan.
Concussive rounds hit Kargad, staggering his charge somewhat. Suddenly, a blur of purple-blue energy cracked out of the door frame like a railgun; Firu had hit the krogan with a biotic charge and had brought him into melee range. Given his formidable resistance and reaction time, he had managed to bring his hammer up to block most of the impact, but now the two heavy hitters were locked in a biotic melee struggle, the impacts making even Sabinus flinch in their intensity, shotgun blasts and punches being met with hammer blows and headbutts. Kargad managed to grab Firu by the chest armour, driving her hard into the ground, knocking the wind out of her, but she still managed to grab her shotgun by the barrel and drive the grip into the krogan’s jaw, forcing him to stumble back, dazed, before finally collapsing backwards, having absorbed a tank’s worth of abuse before succumbing to the accumulated abuse. A triumphant Firu tried to get back to her feet when a biotic envelope surrounded her, yanking her off her feet towards Naryxa, who used her rifle to put a tidy burst center mass into Firu, disabling her as well.
The two heavies had been so eager to test their mettle against each other they weren’t working effectively with their team; it would be something that would need to be ironed out. It could be argued that Firu sacrificed herself to stop the krogan, which would have been hellish to deal with had he gotten inside, and Kargad put himself at risk to clear a path for the others to advance, something that only really had a place in war vids; while a hostage had their life on the line, so to speak, speed was of the essence. It would be essential to keep his impulses in check and to not overestimate his capabilities; a krogan in the right circumstances was unstoppable, but not when the battle heavily favoured the enemy’s position.
Sabinus was pulled out of the exercise when his omnitool pulled up a call from Kandros; it was flashing red, so it definitely wasn’t a social call.
“Tannyx, we have a situation.” The APEX commander said immediately, cutting right to the point when he saw his subordinate's face appear. “We have an issue on Eos that requires immediate response at Site 1. A research team has been sent on site to see if any equipment could be salvaged and what data might still be recovered and have come under attack from a Kett patrol. The security detachment is overwhelmed and there are casualties. I need your team to head there immediately; I know you haven’t officially cleared the team for operations, but you’re closest and the Kett don’t wait for paperwork.”
“Understood. Get a shuttle ready, we’re on our way. Echo One out.” Tannyx said, cutting the comms. He send an alarm to each of the omnitools for the team to cut the exercise short. Running down to the site, he managed to get the exercise stopped. “I hate to cut training short before our 5 click march, but we have a situation at Site 1, Promise. I need you all to gear up for combat operations; a bunch of researchers who don’t know how to hold a gun need to be shown why APEX is what’s going to keep the Kett from preventing Eos from being home. Gather your kit, we’re having a shuttle sent our way. Move out, Echo!”
~~~
Fireteam Echo gathered quickly, its members trading their training loadout for their original firearms and in a few minutes everyone was inside the shuttle making its way towards Site 1. Inside of the shuttle Tazen stood next to Sabinius, the Salarian rapidly checking the information that had been sent both to him and his Turian colleague. “Alright Echo, as Lieutenant Tannyx mentioned briefly, there is a situation in Site 1 involving some researchers that is top priority.” Spoke the Salarian while tapping his omnitool, a holographic map of Site 1 appearing on the Salarian’s omnitool and on each of the omnitool’s carried by each member of Echo. “In light of the success on Eos, and the establishment of Prodromos.” Continued Tazen “The leadership of the Initiative thought it’d be wise to salvage as much equipment and data as possible from both Site 1 and 2, unfortunately the research team that had been sent to do this task was caught by a Kett patrol while they were combing Site 1.”
“The appearance of the Kett caught the team by surprise and before they could retreat to their shuttle and escape a few members of the team were killed.” He said “Current state of the team is unknown, the last information that we have on them is that they were locking themselves in one of the buildings on Site 1, the primary objective is to locate the scientists and extract them from the area.” Spoke the Salarian “To do this we’ll set down the shuttle near the outskirts of Site 1.” Said Tazen, pointing at the area he had in mind on the holographic map before he continued, “Once we do that Noratus, Volintis and myself will split off from the main group and try and locate the scientists. Our tactical cloaks should give us the advantage and let us slip by the Kett, allowing us to locate the scientists more easily and, if everything goes well, to extract them without risk.”
“To minimize any potential risks, T’vessi and Mathews will also come with us to act as support while the rest of you will engage with the Kett forces present on Site 1. That way, with their attention turned away from the trapped scientists, we’ll be able to safely extract the salvage team.” Said Tazen “If the plan goes off without a hitch your omnitools will flash once with an alarm, should we be compromised in our efforts to rescue the researchers the alarm on your omnitools will flash twice to signal that we’ve been encountered by the Kett.”
”Rest of you are with me. We are going to get as close as we can while the infiltration team does its job without being spotted and to hit the Kett hard when the package is secure. I don’t think any of you are under an illusion that the Kett can be reasoned with or will show compassion or mercy; they’re monsters that need to be stamped out hard and ladies and gentlemen, we are the Nexus’ giant boot of retribution. Ready up, people; it’s time to show Anjor how we’re going to help the Angara free the Helius Cluster from the invaders. Spirits guide your aim and steady your resolve. Remember to keep your spacing.” Sabinus added.
The shuttle came in fast and low, keeping low to the ground so they wouldn’t be spotted coming. The Kodiak set down somewhat South of Resilience, or Site 2. It wouldn’t be a far route to Site 1. Sabinus’ boots hit dirt first, his L-89 Halberd expanding into shooting configuration as he began to lead the way for his team, his thumb putting the fire-selector onto burst fire as he moved, keeping minimal profile as the team fell in, keeping 3 meters between each trooper as they approached Site 1, the posts of the energy shield acting as landmarks in the not so far distance.
Arriving on site, Sabinus’ team took up positions near the driving path on the Northeast Corner where they had the best sightlines and some respectable cover to see into the camp; hovering above were two dropships. From the intelligence briefings each of the team would have received about the Kett, they could make out about 20 troopers with assault rifles and shotguns, 5 heavy Anointed with heavy repeater cannons that were bigger than any of the team’s armaments, and 6 Wraiths, the massie varren-like beasts that had a baffling ability to mimic a tactical cloak… that they could see. More alarming was the singular Fiend that was stomping around a building impatiently, its bulk easily that of three krogan. While a few were guarding the perimeter, most of the forces seemed more concerned about the survivors locked up in one of the structures, and a pair of Wraiths were fighting over the remains of one of the victims, tearing at a turian body with shark-like teeth.
”Alright, team, here’s the play. The Fiend and Anointed are public enemy number one; they’re heavily armoured so hit them with explosives, warp, AP rounds, fire… anything that’ll help break up their defenses so small arm fire can penetrate their defenses. The Wraiths will cloak and try to flank us, so watch the dust if you lose sight of them; something that heavy’s not going to hide the dirt kicking up behind them. The soldiers are nothing special, put them down in order of threat. Hold your fire until we get word from Team 2 or you hear gunshots, clear? Call your targets. Sabinus asked over comms.
~~~
Tazen looked as Sabinius and the rest of Fireteam Echo began making their way towards Promise to engage the Kett forces currently present in the failed outpost. Turning to look at the other four members of his team Tazen spoke “Alright, we’ll give Sabinius’ team a few more seconds before we go in, we’ll circle around the posts of the energy shield to avoid any potential confrontations with the Kett.” He finished before turning to look at Ryria and Serena “T’vessi, Mathews, you’ll stay further behind since you two don’t have tactical cloaks like the rest of us, your job will be to provide support for me, Volintis, and Noratus. Where the Kett to locate you remember to give the signal to the rest of the team.” He added “Alright, let us find this scientists and bring them back home safely.” Finished speaking the Salarian before beginning to make his way towards Site 1, giving the rest of his team a brief nod and activating his tactical cloak once they were close enough to the failed outpost.
