Avitus walked towards the woods, flanked by his squadmates, when the world turned dark. He raised his fist, signalling them to stop and stared at the black sky for a brief moment. “Spirits.” he gasped. Than the realisation hit him. “Get down, COVER!” 

He himself threw himself onto the ground. He remembered a piece of metal, likely a chunk of the ark’s hull, to his left, but he couldn’t get to it. He was caught by the attack in the middle of an open area with no cover, or even concealment to speak of. As his eyes adjusted to the near pitch-black surroundings, he saw bipedal shapes, dozens upon dozens of them, moving through the woods. Right where they were headed just a minute ago. Avitus could clearly see one of the shapes raise what must have been a weapon and point it his way. He pressed himself down into the dirt and covered his face with his forearm, hoping to minimize his injuries.

A loud whine approached, followed by the sound of rubber sliding on dirt and gravel and projectiles hitting something made of metal. Looking up, he saw the Nomad parked just a meter from him, between him and where he last saw the enemy. Taras picked himself up from the ground behind the Nomad’s rear wheels and unloaded his Revenant in long bursts into the foliage. Avitus could imagine the odd smile on Taras’ face. Wasting no time, he scrambled to his feet and dashed towards the wreckage he saw earlier, closely followed by Taras. Avitus couldn’t see Jouric anywhere, but wasn’t too worried about him. He had two hearts and two separate nervous systems, after all. Now that he had cover, he opened a communication line to Ryder.

“Thanks, the Nomad saved my life. Where can I get one?”

He cycled through his helmet’s vision modes. Basic light magnification provided decent enough image. Whitehot thermal imagining yielded mixed results. Background temperature was fairly low, which made the angarans and milky way species stand out. The quarians’ thermal signatures were colder due to the suits, but still noticeable. What surprised him was the heat emitted by the hostile race, or rather the lack of it. They appeared even colder than the quarians, but that could very well have been caused by their armor. He had a sudden idea. “Taras!”
“Aye?” the russian replied.
“Do you have any flares?”
“Mhm… Da.” Taras said as he realised what Avitus had in mind.
“Everyone careful with your night vision, flare coming up on the south side.” he transmitted on an open channel before switching back to Ryder, “If they’re nocturnal, maybe they won’t like the light.” He turned back to Taras. “Go.”

The flare flew up into the air and Avitus turned to observe the unknown aliens, waiting to see their reactions. When the flare reached the top of its arc, a small chute deployed as it ignited, flooding the surrounding area with bright white light.