”Spend your next leave on Tuchanka and pick a fight with everyone you see. You’ll learn fast enough.”

"[color=6ecff6]Tried it once; didn't like the drinks![/color]"

Vella responded with a light chuckle as she followed the small squad now guarding the battered Krogan back into the friendly firing line. As they reached the relative shelter of the cover, Vella would give Rykarn a quick pat on the back; which she wasn't even sure if he could feel given his excessive armor, natural armor and the limited field of vision that came from being a hunch-back-tank; and promptly turned around.

"[color=6ecff6]It seems the nachspiel is on. You stay put, we'll clear this b-grade zombie apocalypse out![/color]"

And with that, Vella had already rushed towards the front of the firing line; her Apostle battle rifle instantly lined up and ready, before she fired off a glimmering, crystal clear beam of light that turned an oncoming husk's shoulder to ash; before Vella promptly corrected her aim and proceeded to vaporize its chest!

[i]"[color=6ecff6]Now I'm getting sloppy![/color]"[/i]

She quietly admonished herself as she kept on firing, rapidly acquiring new targets, eliminating them and already moving on to the next ones! She could feel how the insides of her suit felt like a wet jungle, full of sweat, yet it only made her remember one of the earliest lessons she learnt during her training more than a hundred years ago:

The more you sweat, the less you bleed!

She whipped off another shot. Then another shot. It was then that she began to realize that the number of incoming husks was becoming dramatically smaller.
It was... puzzling, to not have one of those ghostly, blue eyed corpses bearing down on you for every second; like it had been mere seconds ago. But in hindsight, when you had a full firing line of professional killers, hired guns, spectres, elite soldiers and psychos; all armed to the teeth; firing continuously at the no more than a hundred husks that had been still standing outside when the entrance had been collapsed, it made sense that they would soon run out of fodder!

Yet her thoughts of this becoming too easy would suddenly be interrupted as she moved to the left of the line, and suddenly saw:

"[color=6ecff6]What? ... not again![/color]"

"I'm crippled. Need... Support..."

She immediately recognized the mangled but still unmistakable heap of battered metal lying a few meters away from the line that was Ellis, unmoving!
Most of the husks seemed too focused on the firing line gunning them down to notice the heavily-canned meal lying next to them as they all ran past him; that was, all with the exception of the bulbous, grotesque mass of a reaper Cannibal unit emerging from the dust behind Ellis, surrounded with a black, chitinous armor covering its mass of dead flesh and reaper implants, and with five glowing, ghastly eyes now eyeing the defenseless Ellis with morbid interest!

In an instant, memories flashed through Vella's mind! Memories of a demolished alley in rain and darkness, a half toppled giant silver tower above; red flashes of weapons fire across the murky field; the same five glowing eyes; and a scream:

"[color=ec008c][b]Calisto![/b][/color]"

After what had felt like a whole eternity, yet in truth been nothing more than the blink of an eye; Vella's eyes finally opened again, a tint of black receding from them as she first focused on Ellis, then the Cannibal...

" [color=6ecff6]... oh NO [b]YOU DON'T[/b]![/color]"

In a sudden rush of speed, she leaped out of her cover, charging across the field with rifle held high as she almost instantly put down another two husks as she closed in rapidly on the Cannibal! As the grotesque techno-monstrosity loomed over the broken pile that was Ellis, it looked up, recognizing the charging figure as Vella fired three more shots aimed straight at it!

The first silver beam hit its chitinous shell, crumbling a small section of it but failing to penetrate. Another one hit another layer of chitinous armor, disintegrating it but barely burning the dark, fleshy mass behind. The third shot hit its fourth eye, destroying it and leaving a large hole in its head; but it simply reeled back, the Cannibal still standing as readied a pair of clawed hands, its glowing maw opening wide as it let out an echoing wheezing laughter!

Before she could fire another shot, her weapon let out a familiar yet very accursed beep; signaling that it had overheated!

With her weapon currently out, Vella simply slung it aside, and instead reached out with her arm; charging forward with a furious scream! The cannibal lunged forward with its vicious claws, unphased by the incoming attacker, until the familiar blue, biotic light surrounded Vella's fist as she brought it straight into the Cannibal's numerous eyes! With pure hate and rage fueling right into her biotics, the punch was powerful enough to bury the cannibal's head right back into its own body, before tearing its entire upper torso in two in an abominable shower of gore as the remains of the Cannibal was blown back into the ruins of the entrance with the force of a cannonball!

Vella stood there for a moment, panting behind her helmet as her eyes scanned for any other hostiles; though found most of the husks either already dead or being in the process of being shot to pieces.

For a moment, she looked at Ellis, moving as if a different spirit had taken over her body altogether!
That was, until she shook her head and let out a tired laugh, seeming to suddenly return back to normal as she activated her omni-tool.

"[color=6ecff6]I'm worried this will become a habit, Ellis.[/color]" 

She said with a smirk, beginning to run a debug on Ellis's suit's systems. Though after a quick glance at the feedback, she suddenly hesitated, before activating her squad-comms.

"[color=6ecff6]Uhh... how long for a med-evac?[/color]"