A hot hand of force, sound, heat, and shrapnel screamed down the tunnel. He may have avoided the blast but Aegon felt half-way seared by the heat of the explosion and his hearing was blurred for several moments, his helmet protecting him from the worst of it as he quickly got over the disorientation. Aegon took a quick peek. The retreating Cerberus squad had been fried and the structural integrity of the base' entryway had suffered greatly, with massive cracks appearing in the ceiling. The old tunnel had fared only somewhat better. Debris had rained down from the ceiling and one block had narrowly missed striking Giles in the head. Not that he wouldn't have deserved it for nearly blowing them all to the afterlife. But a quick inspection showed that most of the team was alright, even Ellis, who managed to escape the worst of the blast. Most of the prisoners had been killed however, perhaps two or three were still breathing. Not a complete disaster but Aegon was far from pleased. He didn't get much chance to speak however when Jake came in on the comm with his report.
Aegon vowed he would set the intel guys straight, if he survived of course. How was it possible that they had no idea of this? He would have given orders but Anderson beat him to the punch. It seemed wrong for his partner, his junior partner, to give the orders unilaterally, but he was being decisive and Aegon couldn't begrudge him that. No point in arguing, even when Rykarn decided to put in his own order. He wasn't the kind of officer who was insecure about his command and needed to measure dicks, Aegon shouted, "You heard them! Get into gear! We've got no time and a whole lot of shit coming down on us!"
Despite his team being almost universally a collection of hotheads with far too much power and not enough brains to go with it, he appreciated their tenacity and their resourcefulness when it came down to the wire. The spirits seemed to favor both the the bold, and they certainly were that. They immediately leaped into action, and Aegon knew with a little work they would be a force to be reckoned with. They just needed to survive. Aegon saw the infiltration team coming in, heard the shrieks of the horde behind him, and he grimaced in remembrance. He had seen Husks for the first time when the Geth attacked the Citadel. He saw them again on Palevan. There had been hundreds of thousands of them during the Miracle. Their shrieks were a constant during the battle, as omnipresent as gunshots or the screams of the wounded. Sometimes at night, he still heard those mechanical wails in his sleep.
Aegon shoved all that away and hit his adrenaline rush, time slowing down again as he got his rifle to bead. He had all the time he needed, but to everyone else he moved with lightning speed. Sixteen shots in a clip, sixteen rounds through husk heads, plus a quick draw of his pistol, three more shots; and nineteen husks fell within a few moments. It was barely a drop in the bucket. They kept coming, surging tightly down the narrow hallway and jostling over their fellows as they reached for the team, barely held back by the firepower of the team. Aegon reloaded, and came to the infiltration team shouting out, "Someone get those pylons online! Give us a boost here!"
He made sure the scientists were squared away, before bending down to police some munitions from the downed Cerberus troopers. One of the trooper prisoners, in a sudden flash of life, reached for a Talon and tried to aim it at Aegon. He just barely brought the barrel to Aegon, his finger curling around the trigger when his hand suddenly flew from his arm. The trooper barely had time to scream before his head fell off of his neck. Aegon flicked the blood off of his sword before pointing it at the scientists, "That's what will happen if you try anything while you're within twenty feet." Taking a second to draw and aim, he pulled his Paladin and shot an old lightbulb several hundred yards down the hallway, shattering the glass with a clean shot, "That's what will happen if you're further than that. Stay put."
Aegon turned up his speakers and said, "We hold this position for as long as we can! The civvies need time to evacuate! We hold them here, and push them back so we can set explosives! Just enough to collapse the entryway! There are homes and businesses above us, too much and those go down! Only detonate on my mark!" The entryway's ceiling was already compromised thanks to Giles, it wouldn't take that much more force to bring the ceiling down on the husks. Aegon cursed as he saw Salissa try to hold off the horde by herself. Fool. She had the weight of the horde pressing down on her, she'd be lucky to last ten more seconds. Already her shield was breaking under the weight of the onslaught. If she didn't disengage now, she'd be mobbed.
He shouted out, "Salissa! Get out of there! You're about to overrun!" He yelled at the rest of the team, "Suppressing fire! As much as you can down there without hitting anyone else! Push them back so we can set charges! Then stand your ground!" He walked forward, hitting the adrenaline rush again and firing, reloading and firing nonstop, putting every round he could down scope, every bullet finding it's mark. All they needed was some breathing room, space and time to plant explosives. Then they could hold out, hold them at bay until the last possible second to give the civilians time. Then they could bury the hallway and clean out the base with some Alliance support.
Chev
Mixtape Ghost N