From one problem straight into another, the grenade situation seemed to be relatively contained, even with Skarr deciding to smash the bundle with his hammer for some reason, and the remainder of the Cerberus troops incapacitated or killed, all without causing the ancient metro system to collapse upon them. The YMIR mech went down with a well-placed shot into its optics, and as it came crashing down before self-detonating, as most of the mechs from that manufacture did as a failsafe to keep the tech out of enemy hands, and possibly take down a few of them who got too close. Even though Rykarn didn’t consider himself to be “up close”, he still covered his helmeted face with an arm as scraps of shrapnel impacted his armour, far lower than their apex velocity. The threat gone, he assessed the situation; other than Ellis being trapped in a useless can of a suit, the rest of the team made it out intact. Not a complete write off, after all. 

Taking the brief downtime to top up his grenade launcher’s heavy weapon cells as the team collected itself, and their commanding Spectre seemed to be less than enthused about the combat display. When he ordered for someone to retrieve Ellis, Rykarn grunted. [color=lightgray]”I got ‘em.”[/color] he said over the comms, starting to jog towards the human. While he didn’t exactly want to see the ex-Cerberus agent get blown into gibbets by friendly-caused explosives, the krogan acknowledged he was the one who put himself there and taking down a YMIR mech fast was all but essential; it had the potential to kill off entire squads and still have munitions to spare.

Before the krogan could make it too far, Anderson came over the comms, sounding level-voiced considering the sitrep he dropped. Two thousand Husks?  Reaper research division? Rykarn felt even less empathy to the two troopers he tossed on the grenades. [color=lightgray]”Joy. Those are shit odds, even if we had ten times our number.”[/color] he observed, looking around. The sentiment must have been shared, but the consequences of letting the literal wave of monsters escape to the city was unacceptable. 

[color=lightgray]”Alright, listen up!”[/color] he shouted towards the others. [color=lightgray]”I didn’t spend the past year rebuilding this stinking city to have it all be destroyed by these putrid fucks. Search the bodies, gather as many thermal clips and weapons as you can get your hands on. We don’t have much time; move!”[/color] he growled. At this point, he didn’t care if he was overstepping his bounds in the chain of command, an idea was an idea and if it meant the difference between getting torn apart by hundreds of cybernetic claws or having even a pyjak cock’s chance of survival, things had to get done. Not content to see if anyone else kicked into action, Rykarn hurried from body to body, stripping their belts of anything useful, including a few grenades and carelessly tossing the inert weapons in a similar direction to make something of a community pile. He was barely half-way through when the first all-too-familiar wails started emanating from the tunnel. They were out of time. 

[color=lightblue]"Friendlies coming out!"[/color] a female voice came over the radio with turian flanging. Rykarn was able to picture her after only a few moments. 

[color=lightgray]”Copy that. We’ll check our fire.”[/color] The krogan affirmed, taking up position near the small pile of Hornets, Mattocks, Talons, thermal clips, and fragmentation grenades that had managed to be collected. There were even a couple guardian shields recovered, which may or may not prove to of use. The assault team were out moments later, and nipping at their heels were one of the things Rykarn had rather hoped not to see again. He activated the Cryo rounds on his Striker assault rifle and began to open fire on the first-line Husks, the heavy and slow firing weapon impacting the deformed bodies with explosive munitions that began to dismember limbs and flash-freezing the parts that were still connected to whatever drove those creatures. Frozen chunks of body parts were beginning to pile up, and after even popping out a second thermal clip, seemed about as effective as using a sandbag to try and stop the tide. Keying in the activation for Adrenaline Rush, the familiar needles digging into his back once more, Rykarn’s perception and reaction time increased, making the world seem to move in slow motion while he continued to rain explosive hell down on the Reaper fodder. 

It wouldn’t be enough, he knew. They’d have to bury these things, one way or another. [color=lightgray]”We may have to collapse the tunnel! We get overrun, and these things still get out into the city!”[/color] he shouted to the others, in particular Anderson and Partinax. They were calling the shots, and even though it had only been… what, an hour? Out of his life, they were still his commanders. You listened to the chain of command, or you died.  

Didn’t mean you had to like it.