[IC] Mass Effect: The Face of Injustice

[EliteCommander]

Though fear still permeated her body, she started to show hints of surprise once Raa changed her tone. She did not know she was talking to someone who was barely an adult, and she did not know how what to do. In her mind were deep-seeded fears against the Council, but even she did not think that all of the trillions of souls who lived under them were just as corrupt. She did not trust the Turian in C-Sec, but she largely ignored him. Raa was the one who was relatable. "A...slave?" She stuttered, her arms trembling as she started to feel some uncertainty. Being made a veritable slave to the Council was one of her fears, so the mention of it caused her to think.

The Turian tensed once more when Donny started to step forward, but the fact that he had put down his rifle, and his sympathetic attitude surprised her once more. She was not expecting anything like this from the hardened soldiers of the Council. She started to look uncertain, particularly when Donny mentioned family, as it caused her thoughts to shift back to her own family down on the planet below. She wanted to see them again; she wanted to live.

The woman started to sob visibly and audibly, and began to shakily lower her weapon. However, that stopped when Tacticus spoke. His indirect threat and general military attitude reinforced the notions she held about the Council, so while the others had started to surprise her and cause her to doubt, she feared Tacticus. Quickly, she snapped her weapon back up and tensed her hand around it. It was difficult to determine whether it was intentional or the result of her inexperience with firearms, but she fired the weapon, not at Raa or Donny, but at Tacticus.

[WardenCelestine]

With every second that passed, the Cabal Minus readied themselves for a counter attack while Solares and the rest of the squad desperately attempted to negotiate with the traumatized female Turian. At this point, she had managed to find herself a corner inside of the security station and lean into it, hands clenched tightly onto the weapon, shaking nervously while aiming down the iron sights of the pistol. Raa kept trying to calm the female Turian down while putting her own life at risk, using a gentle and soothing tone of voice. “Noble but foolish, not all can be swayed with words.” He thought to himself while keeping the MK77 scope centered upon the potential hostile. When Donny joined Raa’s side, Solares could feel his muscles tighten slightly from how poorly the situation was being handled. His training taught him that in a situation such as this, you are advised to use another means besides using lethal rounds to incapacitate the target and remove it from harms way. Non-lethal rounds were not an option, due to the fact that he didn't have any, so someone else in the group was going to have to eliminate the threat before the female Turian ended up shooting someone.

"Lady if it counts... we could have killed you awhile ago. We really just want to get out of here alive."

Solares let out a soft sigh while mentally facepalming at what Tacticus had said, "Did you even go to hostage and negotiation training? You're only going to end up getting someone..." his sentence was cut short as the female Turian opened fire upon Tacticus with out warning.

[Rtron]

Raa nearly jumped out of her suit when the human came up beside her. Immediately her helmet turned and looked at him, partly fearful he would get her shot before she could calm the Turian down. Her eyes studied him warily as he spoke to the female, his tone soft and no weapon in his hand. It made Raa relax some. A mistake she regretted when one of the Cabalist spoke. Everything went sideways almost immediately as when the turian had been about to put down her gun, she whipped up back up and fired.

Immediately Raa’s figure dropped. Her arms came up over her head and her figure curled into a crouched down position, protecting herself instinctively. She gave a scream in her fright. In the same instant that the turian shot, RK overloaded the gun, making it useless. Her monitors immediately were checking over Raa’s vitals before the AI realized that it wasn’t the Quarian that was being aimed at but the cabalist. Her head appeared beside Raa and practically glared at the stupid alien for pushing her hand into unleashing overload sooner than planned. Her anger was drawn away she noted an irregular pattern in Raa’s breathing and snapped her head to her charge.

Voira turned carefully as the human approached the Turian, ready to throw up a Barrier should the scared civilian. She didn’t relax a bit as the two of them seemed to be getting through to the turian. It would only take a little bit of a push to make her fire the pistol and Voira knew it. She almost, almost relaxed as she saw the pistol lowering. Then the damn Turian Cabalist had to speak up.

Voira’s reaction was instinctive as she saw the pistol snap back up. A barrier put itself around the Quarian’s body, and the pistol went off. As Raa hit the ground with a scream, Voira focused on her as she saw the human moving and the pistol be overloaded, panic and fury surging through her through her body. She forced herself to speak and act calmly, for Raa's sake.

The Asari crouched next to Raa, examining the curled ball as best she was able. “Raa, are you hit? Talk to us Raa.” She spoke, barely keeping ahold of the panic that consumed her. She didn’t know where the shakiness had sent the bullet.

[Lucius Cypher]

Things got bad real fast.

At first Donny thought he and Raa were actually getting through the turian. She seemed to be lowering her weapon, maybe even considering taking up their offer. But then one of the turians said something and caused her to shoot. Raa ducked, and Donny froze up. At that moment he felt days turn into weeks turn into months turn into years. He closed his eyes and let out a single tear. "Sorry everyone..."

But Donny didn't feel anything. The bullet didn't hit him. Did she miss? Did she shoot someone else? Donny opened his eyes and saw Voria next to Raa. No blood from either of them, so Raa wasn't dead. Donny didn't see any of his blood... Though he may simply be running on adrenaline. He looked up at the turian. She was crying, but in her hands was a smoking gun. Donny had to act; he didn't have time to think of the danger. Since he was already so close he reached out and grabbed the barrel of the gun, jerking it upwards. His other hand moved towards the turian's neck as he moved into her. Grabbing her by her shirt Donny moved his leg behind hers, and just as he pushed her head down he swept her feet out from under her, to slam her onto the ground. Not exactly a "Non-lethal" maneuver, but he wasn't aiming to kill her. Simply take her down. He made sure the gun wasn't pointed at anyone as he pinned her to the ground.

"NOW YOU STOP RIGHT THERE! No one needs to die, so don't you start shooting! Drop your weapon! Surrender NOW!"

[EliteCommander]

The Turian cried out in pain as she hit the ground, so much so that it was uncertain if she had even heard Donny's demands. She did let go of the weapon after a few moments, but it seemed only so she could press her hands up against the side of her head. The floor underneath her head was starting to turn blue with her blood, and she was screaming loud enough to be easily heard down the hall. "No, please no! Please don't kill me!" She cried out, her eyes glossed over with tears.

Avatar noticed the woman's bleeding, and given the nature of the injury, acknowledged that she could potentially have a concussion. However, it had to prioritize the safety of allied forces, so it instead moved directly to the security terminal to attempt to gain access to the system. As well, they were finally able to move the rest of the non-combatants into the room and lock down the door behind them.

The security terminal itself had not been locked or disabled, so accessing it was simple, but when Avatar attempted to access its functions, it found that they had been locked by the primary control center for the station. This was an expected scenario, so it had already been prepared to attempt to bypass the security measure. It had manufactured the base of a virus intended to cut off the local console from the primary control center. From there, it could reboot the console with itself mimicking the master controller, thereby gaining access to the console's functions. All it had to do first was to modify the virus to be compatible with this specific system.

Within thirty seconds, however, the sounds of footsteps could be heard in the hallway outside, followed by an attempt to unlock the doors. Avatar had placed the doors into an emergency lockdown state, but they would not remain shut indefinitely. It was highly probable that the hostiles could open them, if not by hacking, by a breaching charge. It drew the rifle from its back, then looked to Creator Raa'Kina. She appeared to be experiencing emotional stress due to the incident with the Turian civilian, but it estimated that RK could perform the task within an acceptable timeframe. "Hostile forces have arrived. My platform will improve the probability of a successful defense, so I recommend Raa and RK attempt to hack the console." Avatar advised as it sent a request for direct digital communication to RK so it could upload the virus for RK's use. Even in the middle of combat, Avatar could also dedicate processing power to aiding RK, which could prove necessary since RK was likely unfamiliar with the architecture of Geth programming.

[cqbexpt]

"You stupid BITCH!" Tacticus yelled at the Turian women as she fired at him. His shields flared and his body began to pulse with biotic energy. But when the gun obviously overloaded and Donny quickly subdued and began yelling at her to drop it. He holstered his gun and looked at the now injured Turian on the ground. He felt nothing but anger for the idiot who was now knocked on her ass. He looked at the Turian asking if he went to negotiation training. "That isn't our job. We're a blade meant to cut at the heart of the enemy and complete our objective... you should know that by now." Then he felt a hand be placed on his shoulder. He had a pretty good guess at who it was. When he turned his head to look at Sura she gave him a disapproving look.

"You know what our job is. Let others handle things you don't know." She then walked back out of the security room to go get the diplomats from the hallway. Which left Tacticus standing near the weapons locker and over a Turian with a head wound. Not wanting to look at the women he began searching through the lockers for a heavier weapon he could use for this defense. Charging was not too useful when you didn't want to leave. He managed to find a shotgun that would work for the time being since they were all going to be aiming at a door anyways. He pulled the weapon out of the cabinet and went around the the women and the Quarian and began to set up a defensive position with the rest of the cabal. This is what should be doing. It was what he was good at, not negotiating with scared little girls...

[Rtron]

Voira glared at the stupid Turian, kept only from knocking some sense into him with one violent smack by the fact that there were hostiles bearing down on them and Raa needed her help more than he needed a fist to the face. Gently, Voira managed to get Raa out of her curled ball and checked her for any wounds. Satisfied that Raa was no more than extremely shake up at coming so close to death the Asari gave a quick, relieved, hug to the Quarian before speaking quietly. "Raa, I know you're scared but we need to get RK to the terminal. If we don't the humans are going to die in the hangar." When she was sure Raa could move Voira guided her over to the terminal where hopefully RK would be able to get into the hangar and security systems and make escaping this mess far easier than it would be. As Raa was setting up RK, Voira drew her assault rifle and renewed the barrier around the Quarian.

Her eyes narrowed in rage again as she saw the blood and sobbing Turian, before she roughly forced herself to aim at the door once more. She couldn't do anything about it right now and she knew it. That didn't mean she was going to forget about it, however. Not as long as the stupid bastard with no common sense was within eyesight. Voira's eyes moved to Tacticus, watching as he armed himself and got ready for the assault. We'll have a talk with him later. A nice, long, talk. She promised herself as she returned her gaze to the door and aimed her rifle at it, waiting for the first poor, stupid, enemy to walk through and into certain death.

Voira grinned. We really need something to kill. Whose first for volunteers?

[WardenCelestine]

Shit hit the fan very quickly and everything went downhill from there. The round from the female Turiuans pistol flew past Solares and hit Tacticus. Thankfully the weapon was not aimed at Raa or himself since the round would of most likely hit him in the head and he cared quite a bit for the Quarian. “Trigger happy bitch.” Solares thought to himself, while standing back up, moving the shotgun onto the back of his armor once more. It was clear that the Turian was no longer a threat, after Donny slammed her head down onto the cold metal floor and held her there. “That was completely unnecessary Donny, you could of incapacitated her without injuring her.” He walked over to her side and bent down on his knees before glaring up at the human. “You have done enough Donny, I can handle it from here, or do you feel the need to cause more damage?” he asked then motioned at the wounded Turian who pleaded for her life while bleeding rather badly from the head wound.

“In intense situations that cause great amounts of fear, your body will enter a defense mode where the subconscious will kick in and have a certain amount of control over the body. I don’t expect you to understand since I am sure you did not spend years in medical classes.” Solares was now gently and carefully tending to the female Turians headwound. Once she was taken care of and had a stern lecture, Solares pulled the shotgun from the back of his armor and readied himself along with the rest of the group of the hostiles that were about to breach the door nearby. His training kicked in while he took a defensive position and waited patiently for all hell to break loose.

[EliteCommander]

In the time available before the hostiles breached the doors, Avatar did what it could to prepare for the attack. There were two doors leading into the same hallway, each on opposite ends of the same wall. Since the fighting would remain close quarters, Avatar switched to its shotgun to improve its effectiveness. There were no fixed or loose objects in the room which would provide viable cover, but Avatar was able to move furniture such as chairs, and even a table, closer to the door to act as obstacles for those attempting to file into the room. It would only be a minor hindrance, but it improved their chances of success by a greater degree than any other actions it could have taken during the same time.

The whole time, the Turian woman was crying out in pain. She was not in a position to prevent Solares from stopping her bleeding, but that did not cure her injury. She largely ignored Solares’ words and instead curled up on the floor, clutching her head, screaming. “My…head…” She said weakly while sobbing.

After five separate, unsuccessful attempts to open the doors conventionally, Avatar heard more movement outside, heading away from each door. Retreat was improbable, so Avatar expected the use of explosives to gain entry, and after only seven seconds, its expectation was proven correct. Two detonations, 1.21 seconds apart, struck both doors. Neither of the metal doors were completely opened, as it appeared as if the hostiles had used fragmentation grenades as improvised breaching charges. However, they were both damaged enough that biotics among the enemy were able to use their abilities to clear the doorways, first on the right door, then the left. Unlike a normal, properly executed breaching maneuver, the enemy was not able to file in immediately to take advantage of the disorienting effects of the explosions, which allowed Avatar’s allies to recover and prepare. On the left door, two enemies took cover on each side of the door way and leaned into the room to fire, while on the right, where Avatar was aiming, a hostile threw a fragmentation grenade into the room. Given that they were in an enclosed space, the ricochets from the grenade could potentially threaten anyone in the room, even outside of the lethal blast radius.

[Fallenreaper]

Raa was too closed off to notice anything happening around her. Her hands closed about her helmet and protecting herself, shaking like a leaf. Even worse were her own thoughts. Over and over, she was thinking she had been shot and any moment she would collapse from it. She shot me… I’m dead...I’m dead… The ideas seemed so real. So plausible to her when her eyes spotted the gun flash and heard the bang, not fully realizing it wasn’t aimed for her at all.

Like Raa, everyone already reacted to the attempted murder in different ways.

Donny shot forward and slammed the Turian down, cutting her, ordering her to stand down. Meanwhile she pleaded for her life and curled up into a defensive ball, similar to Raa. Tacticus made a muffled shout, his botic shield raised, while he felt a hand on his shoulder. His commanding officer scolded him and reminded him to butt out next time, her body turned to walk away to set up a defensive perimeter. Avatar had already stepped toward the terminal, preparing it, before taking out its shotgun. When RK got a request for the virus, she immediately uploaded for the Geth to insert, her hands still busy with trying to get Raa back on her feet. Already Solares, who had shooed away Donny, was tending to the Turian female and her wounds.

Raa wasn’t seeing any of it, her mind settled in pure shock. Her fingers had partially tried to break her helmet with their pressure but thankful she wasn’t strong enough as she curled there trembling like a leaf. She wanted to go home, where it was safe and she wasn’t being shot at. It took a moment or two for her realize she was being pulled upright. Voira’s eyes studied, checking her over, seeking for some small wound or tear before seemingly satisfied. Sensing Raa’s terror, Voira’s arms wrapped about her and held her close. Raa was immediately attracted to the security, Raa hugged back and leaned into it. She finally noted the fighting was done when the others, mostly the cabalist, started to pull ranks toward the door. It seemed they were setting up a defensive perimeter.

Gently, Voira, after calming her down, had guided her to the terminal.When her hands touched the console, RK took over and started to speak. “Alright, Raa. Can you hear me hun?”

Raa nodded, meekly. Her digits already on the keyboard as she paused, her mind blank for what she was suppose to do. RK naturally filled her in with a gentle nudge and quickly downloaded the virus. It would take some time while the pair prevented anyone from tampering with it before it complete. Raa’s fingers flew across the keyboard quickly and her mind faded from the scene, absorbed into her work. While RK talked, muffling out the sound within Raa’s helmet, she focused on keeping her charge centered on her task at hand. Being close to the terminal and from the direct fire, they were both sadly unaware of the bouncing grenade into range.

[Lucius Cypher]

Donny subdued the Turian before Solares came up and told him to leave. He berated Donny for his rough handling, which nearly got a hostile remark from Donny. But then the geth informed them of incoming hostiles. "Shit." While Donny was rather angry at Solares for trying to critique him now of all times about his methods, it wasn't worth getting into an argument right now. There were enemies at the rear and they had only precious little time before the same may happen to his allies.

But while Donny got himself into position to intercept the incoming hostiles, his mind was full of fear and doubt. "How long did it take to talk down that turian? Long enough for the enemy to catch up to us. What about my team? Are there any of them left? Rosemary, Seraph, Alexander, Aman, Brendan, Tristan, Yoaso, Harriette, and Eleanore... Are they dead because I tried to save that turian?" There was doubt in his actions. Like all he wanted to do was run. But the door behind them was not open, and the doors back had enemies. They had to make a stand here. There was fear in Donny's actions, but he was a soldier. He had to fight. And he would do so with fear in his heart, because there was no other option. There was no surrendering.

Donny got into position, knocking over a table as soft cover. He doubt it could last more then two, maybe three shots, but he wouldn't need it for long. He waited. And waited. And waited. Seconds to minutes. And then the explosion occurred. Technically two but for Donny they both happened roughly at the same time. When the smoke cleared Donny could see from his position two hostiles at the left door, firing from cover. Donny fired off some shots with his shotgun, not really intended to hit but to get them back into cover. Then he saw something thrown into the room. Donny almost missed it if he wasn't looking for it. It was a grenade, but in Donny's eyes it looked like a red clay pigeon. Lowering his gun for just a moment he reached his hand out and put a barrier around the grenade. With a flick of his wrist he had the grenade go back the same way it came.

[cqbexpt]

When the door exploded Tacticus was hoping that they weren't a cohesive enough unit to pile into the room like any trained military unit would. Luckily they didn't, these people were not trained to work as a group let alone efficiently. Instead they elected to throw a grenade in which was easily picked up and tossed back out by Donny's biotics. Specifically over to the two Turians leaning out of the doorway to the left. Before either of them were able to react Tacticus began laying rounds into the two Turians with his recently acquired shotgun. The cabal also began putting combined fire at the door way as the two Turians pressed for cover under the hail of bullets and shotgun pellets. When the grenade finally went off it ripped open the remainder of the door still clinging to the frame and busted out the frame and the floor.

He couldn't see the damage that it had done to the Turians but considering the grenade was at their feet it most certainly killed them. The gunfire subsided as there was nothing left to shoot at. He did however see one of his team mates throw a warp at the right door and try to curve it around the corner. He couldn't see what he was hitting or if it even hit anything but he assumed more hostiles were about to come in through that door. He dumped the thermal clip in his shotgun and inserted another one waiting for the next person to come in through the door.

[EliteCommander]

As the grenade was directed through the right door, Avatar joined in the volley of fire on the left door. As the explosive had detonated less than a meter out into the hallway, it had likely killed or incapacitated anyone within the lethal blast radius, while the ricochets were likely to damage the shields of others farther away. On the left, the Turians outside were only able to fire into the room briefly before being met with overwhelming return fire. The shields of one were drained before she could react, and several pellets from Avatar's shotgun found their mark in her chest, along with a bullet from one of the Cabal. The other did manage to get back into cover beside the door, but as the walls were not built to withstand sustained fire, enough shots penetrated through that he was taken down as well. Avatar was prepared to eject a thermal clip if the hostiles resumed their attack, but its shotgun had only two remaining to quickly cool the weapon, so they were best used only when necessary.

Outside, there was the sound of footsteps moving away from the doors. They were unlikely to be retreating, but after a failed initial attack, they needed to regroup a safe distance from the doors. Inside the room, no one had yet been injured, but the situation was still dangerous. Both of the Turian diplomats and the Asari diplomat were hiding in the same corner of the room as the Turian civilian, while Raa was working on the terminal. None of them would be priority targets for the enemy, except perhaps Raa, but it would only take one stray shot to kill or injure any of them. And, for the duration of the fight, the Turian woman was still curled in a ball on the ground, clutching her head and crying out in pain.

It was less than a minute after the hostiles had backed away from the doors that there was the sound of running from down the hall, followed by low voices outside the room. Even Avatar's sensors could not distinguish the words they were speaking, but it appeared that the enemy had been reinforced. After the voiced died down, there were few audible sounds outside the room for approximately half a minute untill, all at once, the enemy attacked once again without warning. A streak of blue flashed across the room from the right doorway, impacting Voira. It was the biotic charge of a hostile, though unlike those they had been fighting, she was not Turian. She was either a Human or an Asari wearing one of the same black, full armor suits as the guards of the Asari who had been delivering orders during the ambush. Her charge had hit Voira directly, but it would take a brief moment for her to orient herself after charging across the room.

At the same time, the more hostiles, one Turian and two Vorcha, wearing the same uniform filed in through the right door, while four of the ununiformed Turians they had been fighting rushed through the left door. They were less organized, and perhaps less well-trained than the other group, so they were likely acting on their orders. The enemy was rushing the room all at once, and with the volume of fire that was likely to be exchanged, the diplomats, particularly Raa, were going to be in danger.

[Rtron]

Voira, standing protectively beside Raa, reacted almost instantly as the doors exploded, snapping a barrier over herself and the Quarian. That turned out to be a beneficial move as bullets ricocheted off of her barrier and a grenade tumbled into the room. There was no way the Asari was going to drop the barrier to throw it back out, so she could only hope their allies would react quickly enough to deal with it and the enemies firing through the other door. Fortunately for all involved (well, except the poor bastards out in the hall), the human had reacted quickly enough, Barrier going around and throwing the grenade back outside. The two enemies were cut down in a hail of bullets. Voira could feel the tension rising as the hostiles made various sounds outside, the time seeming to inch by as they waited for the next attack. When it did come, it came blindingly fast and unexpectedly.

The biotic charge shattered through Voira's barrier, as it was snapped up in a hurry and meant to stop bullets and shrapnel not a biotically enhanced battering ram. Voira only had a split second to turn and brace, getting slammed into and knocked backwards. She tumbled over the ground, assault rifle knocked Goddess knows where, scrambling to her feet in a heartbeat, drawing her shot gun as she did so. A pathetic relief cut through her rage and panic as she noted it had the anti-armor rounds in it. Still, the invader was right next to Raa. No. No nononofucknowecantlosehergetthefuckawayfromheryoubitch Voira's thoughts rapidly disintegrated into a panicked, enraged, need to destroy the biotic who had attacked her. "Die. Die. DIE!" Voira screamed, throwing a blast of biotic energy at the black armored woman, shot gun slugs soon following wherever the biotic dodged or blocked or moved as Voira moved forward to get her away from Raa.

[WardenCelestine]

Taking cover behind the table with Donny may not have been the best idea, but it was better than standing out in the middle of the hallway giving the hostiles a clear shot at him. His Piranha Shotgun was aimed at the door, incendiary rounds loaded and ready to be fired at a moment’s notice. Only a short while passed before the main door was opened, followed by a frag grenade being tossed down the hall at them. “They should have cooked the grenade before throwing it in here, pathetic and poorly trained.” thought Solares as he watched Donny use his Biotics to toss the grenade back at them. Taking cover quickly, he waited for the grenade to explode before putting rounds down the hallway and into the Cabal. Once the grenade finely did go off with a satisfying bang, pieces of debris from the door and its frame flew down the hall, more smoke taking its place. Bringing his Shotgun into play, he took a combat stance behind the table before emptying a large number of rounds through the smoke. Red tracers flew down the hallway and illuminated the smoke whenever it passed through it, creating a soft red glow. After a large number of rounds had been fire, he removed his thermal clip from the shotgun and replaced it with a fresh one before observing the scene and all of its chaos once more.

He could hear the sound of footsteps running away from both of the doors, there was a small chance they were retreating but the odds of that happening were almost nonexistent. “Most likely regrouping or calling in heavier troops.” He said into his helmets com so the rest of the squad could hear him. As if on que, the sound of someone running back to them could be heard, and Solares raised his shotgun to take aim once more. His breath slowed down and returned to a calm state, letting the sway of the scope stop for the time being. “A deep breathe in and hold, then let it out, repeat to help reduce sway.” Is what Aviza would tell him when lining up a shot for whatever weapon he was using during training. It had helped him a lot, and was still helping him to that day. “Hey RK, how is Raa doing with the lockdown?” he asked quietly into his helmets com just seconds before a streak of blue flashed across the room from the right doorway, impacting Voira. "Damn Biotics.” Thought Solares to himself while taking very quick aim and adjusting his shotguns muzzle before firing at the new hostiles that were trying to flood the room. One of them caught on fire from the incendiary rounds, going up in a brilliant bright red flame before collapsing on the ground and disintegrating into smoldering ash.

[Lucius Cypher]

Donny took a second out of the battle to congratulate himself. He had to admit, as humble and unassuming as he tries to be, that was a pretty sweet move on his part. He doesn't know if that grenade actually helped curb the hostiles, but he felt like a total badass considering that he did it so easily. Maybe he should keep an eye out for more grenades. "Note to self: Become designated grenade spotter."

The explosion gave Donny and his group a precious few seconds of reprieve. He fired off a few shots from his heat sink, adding onto the veritable wall of bullets already flying in the direction of the enemy. He had to let his shotgun cool down however, so he switched over to his pistol so he could get a few more shot off. Not that he really needed to; he had to remember that despite being the only human here, he was being backed up by a whole squad of elite turian operatives. Or something. He doesn't actually know much about turian military, but figured that these guys are likely better trained and much more cohesive as a group then Donny's. Sure he has felt a great sense of camaraderie and support from his group, but they've also known each other for like, three days at most. It was fortunate that they all had standardized training. Shaking these thoughts off Donny readied himself for the next wave. They didn't need to kill everyone, just hold them at bay long enough for Raa-

And that's when a blue bolt charged through the room. Donny ducked his head instinctively, figuring it to be some sort of high-tech laser lightning bolt or some such. Turns out she was a vanguard who was tussling with Voria. Which is not better. She was definitely a threat considering that Raa was a civvie and about five feet or so away from the hostile vanguard. But Donny didn't miss the other soldiers filing in, including the black armored turian and vorcha, and their mook support. Donny took a deep breath and forced himself to think.

"You have six seconds. INNATE TIME CONTROL! No you can't really do that, but you can think fast. Alright, head count. Like, 8 spec op turians? Maybe six? I don't remember right now. The geth, who's a pretty good shot. Voria, while kinda bitchy, also a very powerful biotic with a machinegun. Solare's a dick but he seems to be able to handle himself at least, so there's that. And me. Alright. So about ten or maybe thirteen. Oh, and civvies. Got to keep them safe. Alright Donny, think: Those turians you're with likely got more experience and skills then you do. They likely have the skills and means to deal with the fancy black armored enemies. If need be I could take a shot but... That vanguard is going to bother me, cause she's right behind our line and very close to Raa. Those other three Black Suits also scare me, cause who knows? Maybe they're vanguards too? Why else would they lead a charge straight into a room full of gunfire? They got to be tanky. At least they aren't krogan.... And then the small potatoes. Alright Donny. You're a fish. You're a fish with teeth (guns). You aren't the biggest fish and you don't really have big teeth. But you're not alone. You have allies watching your back, very reliable people. But they aren't perfect. They could get shot and die like your enemies can. But they're bigger fish then you are. And right in front of you are really big fish, and smaller fishes. Maybe... Maybe I can't really do much against the big fish. But I can deal with the small fries!"

Donny got out of his introspective moment to look at the four turians who rushed in. They didn't seem too disciplined, but they still had guns and thus were a bit of a threat. And Donny still had some explosives with him. Granted they were Cain Trip mines but... As much as it wasn't standard protocol, he knows he could throw them. Not at the turians mind; he could arm it and lob it in their path. It takes about 1.5 second for it to arm. And he could link it's blast trigger with the radio signal of his team. So on the off chance that someone goes over there, at least they wouldn't trip off the mine. With any luck Donny's mine could also catch those black suits off guard and- But wait. What if these guys see Donny? When if they throw his mine back at him? Granted it wouldn't explode, but that doesn't mean it still wasn't dangerous. "No!"

This was no time for doubts. no time for second questioning. Are there better ways? Yes. Could Donny do something smarter? Yes. But this isn't a turn-by-turn strategy game where he could analyze each action, use a wide array of awesome skills, and finish without anyone dying. As much as he hate to admit it, he wasn't perfect. Like Solare's said, there are way better ways for him to handle things without doing so much damage. But sometimes... Sometimes...

Sometimes Donny just needs to do tons of damage.

Donny took out his Cain Mine while covered behind the table. The four turians haven't quite gotten to cover yet, but they were the furthest away. No problem, this was an explosive, not a bullet. He didn't need to hit them, just get it close. For maximum damage he'd have to plant it at the front of the group. They were moving forward after all; even he knew how to lead a target. It was a bit hard to get a clear shot because of all the bullets flying in his direction (It was a good thing no one thought to shoot the table cause he's only got shields to protect him) but he only needed a second. Activating shields and looking around the cover of the table, aiming for the spot just one yard away from the first turian leading the other four. "Aim.... Go!" Donny threw the mine. Arming in the air, it was lobbed over the black suits. Donny would have used his pistol for covering fire, but he didn't want to waste bullets and split his concentration as he was actually watching for things like more grenades and his trip mine. He is the designated grenade spotter after all. And Donny will decide where the explosions happened.

[cqbexpt]

The tense few moments listening to the echo-y footsteps of the people who had every intention of killing them. The one other combat mission he had been on had taught him something valuable according to Sura. It wasn't the fighting that would get you killed, it was the waiting. If you didn't wait you were liable to make rash decisions while coming down from an adrenaline dump. Everyone was just sitting there in silence waiting for the enemy to react or to do anything. Instead there was just more unseen movement that was beyond hard to predict with the echo that was being produced. He dug his thumb deep into the grip of the shotgun trying to keep himself from moving at all from his position. Then they rushed them all at once.

He was not quite sure why they did not just do this to begin with but he guessed it was because everyone they had been fighting were either untrained or poorly trained. It was also a possibility that the different training doctrines of the mercs were nowhere near cohesive enough to form any kind of proper assault. He guessed that the last option made the most sense and pushed the thought to the back of his mind to be used later. The first thing he noticed when they burst into the room was the blue bolt that went and knocked down Voira and was dangerously close to the Quarian. He quickly glanced back at the people entering the room and quickly made his choice. He tapped his cabalist buddy Helio on the shoulder then jumped up into a run and charged.

He managed to throw himself in between the Quarian and the what he could now tell was an Asari. He immediately knocked her straight to the ground with a loud metal on metal scrapping sound as her armor hit the floor. Still using some of his momentum from the charge Cactus threw aside his shotgun and put the rest of his biotic energy into his arms making them glow bright and blue with energy. He began punching the Asari as hard as he could with his enhanced fists as apposed to as fast as he could. Snarling and starting to yell at the Asari he began caving in the Asari's chest plate causing her to gasp for air. He began hitting her so hard that he heard her armor crack under his assault. Satisfied that the Asari would not last long and would be less then able to move he Put one final hard punch into the Asari's neck which was slightly exposed. Not realizing how hard he had punched he felt warm blood hit him in the face.

Cactus jerked back in his straddling position for a moment to try and wipe off the blood. With grim look on his face he to a peek at what he had done. The Asari's wind pipe had been so completely he saw her bone. He turned back around to the Quarian and said "Look away...trust me." He then began to get up into the cover that they were near and looked around for his shotgun that he had dumped somewhere. All the while trying to push the body away from the cover with his leg. This was going to a long day.

[EliteCommander]

After the enemy rushed into the room, the fighting was quick and bloody. The Asari who charged Voira raised her own shotgun, but Voira's reaction had been quick. The blast of biotic energy drained the Asari's barriers while stumbling her back. The Asari's weapon still fired, but instead of hitting an unshielded Voira, half of the blast missed entirely, while the other half impacted Raa, but was absorbed by the barrier Voira had placed on her. Several of the pellets flew through the holographic screen to Raa's left and embedded themselves in the wall behind it.

A slug from the armor-piercing rounds of Voira's shotgun cut through the Asari's suit with ease and found its way into her abdomen. It was not immediately lethal, but Tacticus' attack prevented her from retaliating. His biotically-enhanced blows imparted enough force to make her armor irrelevant. Regardless, she tried to fight back. Dropping his shotgun to engage in melee combat had taken longer than if he had simply fired, so she reached for one of her grenades, but he was not slow enough that she could activate it. When she hit the ground, her upper body covered in a a violet paint of her own blood, her hand still clutched the explosive with her thumb only centimeters away from the button which would have armed it.

On the right side of the room, Avatar, Solares, and a few of the cabal fired on the uniformed hostiles. Solares high rate of fire shotgun cut through the shields of a vorcha quickly, with the incendiary rounds burning through his flesh soon after. Avatar was crouched behind one of the overturned tables for visual cover and leaned out to focus on the closest hostile: a Turian. A warp from a cabal hit his shields, which, while it did not drain them completely, allowed most of the pellets from Avatar's following shot to break through. As its weapon was already on target, it was able to fire again at center mass before the Turian could return fire. However, the remaining Vorcha was able to focus on Avatar. All shots from the burst of his rifle, which was of the same model that Avatar had found in the hallway, hit Avatar's shields, bringing them dangerously low. Quickly, Avatar ducked behind the table, then moved to the side. The Vorcha's next burst easily penetrated through the thin table, but were not on target. Leaning out of its cover, Avatar used an energy drain on the Vorcha, bolstering its own shields while draining its opponent's. Both of them then exchanged fire, but as Avatar's shields were now stronger, it could hold up to the Vorcha's next burst, while his shields fell to the shotgun blast. The number of pellets which penetrated his armor did injure him, but the robust nature of Vorcha physiology necessitated three more shots before Avatar could safely consider him to be neutralized.

As it was ejecting a thermal clip from its weapon, a detonation of an alarming size shook the room, as well as those on the decks directly above and below. After 1.5 seconds, the cain mine which Donny had deployed activated. The Turians had saw Donny throw it, but as one of them was attempting to evade what he assumed to be a grenade, he stumbled over one of the chairs which Avatar had placed near the door as an obstacle. His weapon crossed the path of the laser being emanated from the mine, triggering its detonation. A five meter radius around the mine in all directions was consumed by the explosion. All four of the hostile Turians were killed immediately by a combination of the heat, shrapnel, and the shockwave. The walls, floor, and even ceiling in the area, having not been designed to withstand such force, had partially collapsed. Much of the wall leading to the hallway on the left side of the room had been blasted apart, there was a small hole in the ceiling, and a much larger one directly beneath the mine leading to a lower deck.

Unfortunately, the damaging effects of the explosion were not confined strictly to the hostiles. As they were in a confined space, the effective radius of the cain mine was amplified. Only two of the cabal were close enough to perhaps experience injuries from the pressure wave itself, but the shrapnel ricocheted much farther. Anyone with weak or drained shields at the time of the explosion could suffer injuries from said shrapnel. As well, the sound produced by the detonation was well above dangerous thresholds, so hearing damage was possible, though not guaranteed. Immediately after the explosion, Avatar picked up screaming from the direction of the corner where the diplomats had been hiding, but it did not investigate immediately. Instead, it kept its weapon trained on one of the doorways until it could determine if there were any more hostiles present in the area.

[cqbexpt]

After realizing he had been grazed by shotgun pellets Cactus returned to firing at the hostiles entering the room. Though he became completely stunned by the fact that Donny started running with a spirits damned cain mine. Tacticus was still firing at one of the many black clad hostiles entering the room when out of the corner of his eye he saw the crazy human run at the enemy. He managed to only get his mouth open to yell as the mine exploded. Feeling the heat he ducked back behind the thin cover he had been behind for so long and was jarred for a second as his ears wrung. Blinking as the air being sucked out of the room dried out his eyes.

Raising his gun again he quickly found there was nothing to shoot at. More concerning was his teammates and their closeness to the explosion. Seeing that there were no enemies he stuck the shot gun on his back and ran over to his cabal. Two of them were sitting with their backs to the cover with semi-blank stares and picking pieces of shrapnel out of their armor. Both of them had bleeding ears and noses and had Titus the squad medic looking at them with a light from his omni-tool. His ears were also bleeding but he was sure he was aware. Sura was also holding her jaw and was bleeding from the left ear aswell. He went over to her and asked if they were alright. Louder than her normal talking voice she said "Yeah they'll be fine. Just a bit rattled, or so Titus says." She then turned to the rest of them one of whom he noticed were all checking their own hearing. "If anyone else is hurt check with Titus before we move out."

Then Vivea yelled whether out of necessity or to make the point known. "What the hells was that! You could have killed us Human!" Wondering the same thing himself but not wanting to stay here even more he walked over to the terminal they were supposed to be hacking.

"How much longer do you think? We need to leave." Tacticus realized mid way through he was being loud aswell and managed to quite down his voice.

[EliteCommander]

Raa'Kina, RK, and Avatar

---

Raa continued to work on her task, her mind ignoring the gunfire and fighting, while she tapped her three fingers on the keyboard. Her helmet glared while flashes of gunfire barely registered to her. They were nothing but background noise at the moment. Click...clack...click. Her ears filled with RK's soothing voice as she counted down the loading time for the virus, going from 100% to 98% completion, still trickling down.

Raa's attention was jolted when bullets impacted something outside the corner of her visor, her body jumped and head jerked to spot the shimmering barrier. Her heart had leapt into her throat and middle wormed in nervousness to see the bullet riddled wall. First thoughts went for Voira and Solares, her head imagining a feverish picture of the pair being hunched over and dead. It frightened her. Enough she started to shift away before RK snapped into her ear piece.

"Raa'Kina nar vas Rannoch! Get back to that console and help me get this virus uploaded!"

Raa paused and seemed to struggle with the choice she was forced into. Immediately, RK popped up a vital readings over Voira and Solares from their omnitool.

"They are fine, they know how to protect themselves but we need to download that virus. Now." RK spoke firmly, her task focused on getting Raa back to the terminal.

Trembling, Raa turned back to once more start to type again. 86%...83%...

A sudden explosion happened and with it, their hearing became deaf from the sound. It was the screaming that caused Raa to tear away from the terminal at 79%, her ears catching the sounds, and shouted back to RK. "Keep downloading, I'll be right back."

Her boots clicked over to where the diplomats were huddled together, her gut becoming twisted at thinking someone was hurt. Already, her hand was darting to pull up her medi gel stock, she was ready to administer it to the wounded.

As it had not been affected by disorienting nature of the explosion, Avatar had been on guard, its audio sensors listening for the distinctive markers of incoming footsteps. After approximately five seconds of detecting no erroneous sounds , it stepped over to the door and looked out into the hall, confirming that there were no hostiles currently waiting outside. As such, it could now dedicate itself to assisting with injured allies or gaining control of the security console, depending upon where its platform would be the most useful.

The most obvious signs of injury came from the corner of the room where the diplomats has been hiding. When Avatar approached, it saw that not all had escaped injury from the shrapnel. The Turian civilian had been on the ground, and while she still showed signs of a head injury from Donny’s takedown, she was otherwise unharmed. The Asari diplomat had been standing between the Turian male and the explosion, but her weak barrier had protected them. The Turian female diplomat, however, had been pierced by multiple shards of metal. She was lying on the ground with four entry wounds on her chest and abdomen, along with one on her left ankle. The blood had stained her formerly-white clothing blue, and she was wheezing, which indicated damage to one or both lungs. Raa was already moving to tend to her wounds, but the personnel file Avatar had for the Quarian did not list medical expertise.

“Do you require assistance, Raa.” It asked.

Raa nodded, her trembling hands reached to the bleeding Turian. Blue blood smeared over her hands as she reached for the Turian's sleeve and activated her omnitool knife. It flickered to life instantly then neatly sliced through the cloth, severing it from the uniform. She started to wipe away the messy blue liquid away causing her to turn to Avatar.

"I-I need help. I think...I think a lung is ruptured and even if I seal it up, she could still go into shock." Raa said trying to clean out the holes enough to check their depth and fill them in, wary of those near the lungs. "RK, I...I need a full medical file about Turian anatomy. Please."

"Coming up but it will slow the download, namely to talk you through it. It's only a file and audio mostly." RK replied.

Avatar judged that both hacking the console and treating the Turian were time-sensitive issues, so neither could be postponed. It possessed files detailing Creator anatomy, but not Turian, so it could not assist Raa’Kina as efficiently as RK. Therefore, it would be most efficient for it to resume hacking the console to allow RK to rejoin Raa’Kina.

Saying nothing verbally, Avatar made use of direct digital communication to inform RK that it could resume its previous task. Digital communication was more akin to directly exchanging thoughts instead of speaking, so they could hold a “conversation” in fractions of a second.

Naturally RK returned fire with her own arguments, but finally submitted in the end. The damn Geth was a logical machine and emotions, unlike her, didn't compute. She shifted to Raa's omnitool to assist her.

Slowly the AI began to talk the Quarian through the process, first sealing up the holes that seemed the worse. The ankle was the least concern as that wasn't life threatening like the chest wounds. RK determined that the Turian had blood rolling around in her lung though it wasn't easy to tell through sound alone and no tools to measure pulse or vibration in the chest cavity. Raa had already patched three of the four holes and had been about to start on the last when RK stopped her, causing the Quarian to flinch in fear.

"Raa, don't. Not yet. She's got blood in her lungs and you seal that up, it might make it fill faster. We need tubing or something hollow." RK noted, trying to determine what would work.

Raa's mind already was figuring out the puzzle when she realized one thing she could use. Gently she shifted her patient's arm over the chest wound. "Hold it there, and don't close it!"

Wasting little time, she started to fiddle with her helmet clasps. Before RK could give her a serious scolding or warn Voira, Raa had taken her helmet off with a soft hiss. She inhaled the air and immediately coughed, her nose cringe at the scent of blood and fire. Ignoring her own worries, she quickly jerked out and removed her air tube. There was several thankfully and each only a few centimeters wide on both ends.

RK, furious with Raa, instructed her further on how to position the head and elevate the arm to help the blood flow. Trying not shake her hands, Raa inserted the sterilized tubing into the wound. Instantly blood surged out and over what little white remained on the uniform. By this time, one of the Turians had entered. He promptly walked up to Avatar, working at the terminal, and addressed him. This caused Raa to jerk her head for his attention.

"Help, I need help!" She called out, her hands holding the tubing in place and preventing more bleeding. Her voice was loud, panicky without the helmet that usually muffled her voice.

While Raa’Kina and RK had been tending to the wounded, Avatar had picked up precisely where RK had left off, immediately after it returned to Raa’s omni tool. There had been some barriers to uploading the virus, as the station’s central computer was equipped with a virtual intelligence that managed the station’s functions. However, against a true A.I, it served only to slow its progress. By the time Tacticus had approached it, the virus had been uploaded completely. “I have isolated the console from its master controller, Tacticus Agnom. It is currently rebooting; I estimate fifty seconds before I will be able to access local functions.” It explained.